Hong Kong behind schedule in stating date for Legco polls as authorities still assessing Covid-19 situation: minister Patrick Nip
- In the past, the date for the four-yearly polls was usually announced in March
- Preparation work for the elections, due in September, is still continuing amid outbreak, he says
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen on Tuesday insisted that all preparation work for the polls was under way, but he refused to respond directly on whether the government would postpone the elections as the city grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The opposition camp had vowed to take control of Legco for the first time since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, in a bid to force the government to relaunch democratic reforms.
But pro-Beijing lawmakers, including Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, recently urged the government to consider postponing the Legco elections, as the pandemic was unlikely to end by September.
At the Legco’s Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday, pan-democratic lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai urged Nip to explain whether the government would postpone the elections.
“When will you tell us if you will hold or postpone the Legco elections?” he said. “It is now already April … This is about the human rights of all residents.”
Nip admitted that the government usually announced the date of the four-yearly Legco elections in its gazette in March every year.
“Till now, we still haven’t gazetted the date of the Legco elections. The reason is we are facing a special situation under the pandemic,” Nip said.
“We are monitoring closely the development of the pandemic, its impact on various sectors in society and the public health risks. We will assess the situation before taking this legal step.”
We are monitoring closely the development of the pandemic, its impact on various sectors in society and the public health risks
Nip added that authorities had been doing all the necessary preparation work, including voter registration, consultation on the election guidelines, recruiting staff and locating more than 600 polling stations.
He also noted that according to the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, each Legco term lasts for four years. The current term will end on September 30, and the usual practice is to conduct the election in the first half of September.
Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, meanwhile, urged the government to ensure that candidates could canvass votes without fear, as pro-Beijing politicians’ district offices were vandalised by radicals in the run-up to the district council polls last November.
Lee also said previously that it was reasonable for the government to consider postponing the elections if the health crisis worsened.
After the session, pan-democratic lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen said he believed there was little room for the government to postpone the polls, as the Basic Law had spelled out Legco’s term of office.
“I find it weird that the government still hasn’t gazetted the date. As some conspiracy theories suggested, is the government waiting [for] orders from the top?” he questioned, pointing to Beijing.
Chan said the government should start making contingency plans, such as considering handing out masks to voters outside polling stations, and ensuring that residents could still vote even if they were under a mandatory quarantine order.
Last week, pro-Beijing lawmaker Ho, a hardliner within the camp, became the first legislator to ask the government to consider a postponement.
In a letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, he said the government should postpone the election for a year under “safety and fairness” concerns, just like how the Tokyo Olympic Games had been postponed.
