Hong Kong’s traditional opposition parties lose out to localist challengers in fierce weekend primary for coming Legislative Council election

Name: More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections
Uploaded: 2020-07-13T13:56:03.000Z
Duration: 2 min 7 s
Description: More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections

Chief Executive Carrie Lam issues a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary

Beijing’s liaison office also condemns opposition, accusing primary organiser Benny Tai and the camp of trying to stage a ‘Hong Kong colour revolution’

Reading Time:4 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Lengthy queues form at a polling station in Tai Po on Sunday. Photo: Felix Wong

Tony Cheung,Natalie WongandLilian Cheng

Published: 9:56pm, 13 Jul 2020Updated: 2:21am, 14 Jul 2020

Hong Kong’s traditional opposition parties have lost ground to localist challengers in a fierce weekend primary contest to determine who should run in coming elections, as the city leader warned any planned action to paralyse policymaking was potentially subversive.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor issued a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary on Monday night, saying it was subversive for them to vow to seize control of the legislature and vote down key government proposals.

“If this so-called primary election’s purpose is to achieve the ultimate goal of delivering what they called ‘35-plus’ [lawmakers], with the objective of objecting or resisting every policy initiative of the HKSAR government, it may fall into the category of subverting the state power – one of the four types of offences under the national security law,” she said.

02:07

More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections

“I am not saying it has breached it, but I have to put forward a warning that if that’s going to be proven to be the case, then it’s certainly a case to be answered.”

In a strongly worded statement issued late on Monday, a spokesman for Beijing’s liaison office in the city condemned the opposition camp for ignoring the Hong Kong government’s warning of possible legal breaches and pressing ahead with the primary.

It named Occupy movement co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting as a suspect in a possible breach of the national security law by coordinating with the opposition camp to seek control of the legislature, vote down the budget, paralyse the government and subvert the state power.

It also accused Tai and the opposition of aiming to take over the city’s governance by staging the Hong Kong version of a “colour revolution”.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

Hong Kong’s traditional opposition parties lose out to localist challengers in fierce weekend primary for coming Legislative Council election

Chief Executive Carrie Lam issues a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary Beijing’s liaison office also condemns opposition, accusing primary organiser Benny Tai and the camp of trying to stage a ‘Hong Kong colour revolution’

Chief Executive Carrie Lam issues a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary

Beijing’s liaison office also condemns opposition, accusing primary organiser Benny Tai and the camp of trying to stage a ‘Hong Kong colour revolution’