Are Hong Kong voters paying for electoral officials’ mistakes? Three court rulings have yet to settle key issues, experts say

Pro-establishment lawmaker Chan Hoi-yan’s ousting from the Legislative Council has put the spotlight once again on Hong Kong’s electoral system, the officials who act as gatekeepers to the polls and where exactly voters’ interests figure into it all.

Chan became the third lawmaker – and the first from the pro-establishment camp – elected in a 2018 by-election to lose her seat following petitions to the courts by disqualified candidates. The others ousted were pan-democratic politicians Au Nok-hin and Gary Fan Kwok-wai, who were unseated last December.

In all three cases, the courts found that electoral officials had erred in disqualifying candidates from the elections by failing to give them the opportunity to defend themselves against charges made by the officials themselves.

A disappointed Chan, a former journalist turned politician, said after the Court of Final Appeal decided on September 18 that she could not appeal against a lower court’s ruling to unseat her that the outcome was bad for voters.

“They went to the polling station to vote, entrusting me and other legislators to be their voice in the legislative chamber,” she said. “This is really unfair to their vote.”

The top court is scheduled to hand down its reasoning on Chan’s case in writing on Monday afternoon.