Let voters decide if a candidate is suitable for election, jailed Occupy activist Raphael Wong’s lawyer tells Hong Kong court
- Wong’s counsel says case raises questions about the right to stand for elections and ‘goes at the very heart of a democratic government’
- Government lawyer counters that provisions being challenged are to maintain public trust in institutions, as well as the character of members
Lawyers for a Hong Kong democracy activist barred from elections because of his jail term over the 2014 Occupy protests told a court on Tuesday that the assessment of a candidate’s suitability should be left to voters.
Raphael Wong Ho-ming, 31, lodged a judicial review challenging provisions in three ordinances governing the Legislative Council, district council and rural representative elections that disqualify a person from being nominated for five years in such polls, if he or she has been jailed for more than three months.
The League of Social Democrats chairman had considered standing for four elections between 2019 and 2024, but was restricted by the eight-month jail term imposed on him by the District Court on April 24 last year.
Wong has appealed against his latest conviction on two incitement charges and the jail term arising from his role in the Occupy movement on September 28, 2014.
There is no evidence that Wong standing for election would cause public confidence to diminish
His lawyer, Hectar Pun Hei SC, said the case raised “one of the most sensitive questions” as the impugned right to stand for election was “the most important civil and political right” which “goes at the very heart of a democratic and representative government”, and it “may be very tempting for a political power to strip opponents of this right”.