Hong Kong pro-establishment district councillors seek to ensure opposition rivals disqualified if oaths violated

Camp calls on city government to amend necessary laws and create a special task force to ensure new rules are implemented

But Democratic Party leader notes similar declarations of loyalty were already signed ahead of the 2019 district council polls, which opposition won in a landslide

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District councillors attend a meeting in Yuen Long last year. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 5:26pm, 25 Jan 2021Updated: 12:06am, 26 Jan 2021

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment district councillors are urging the government to amend necessary laws so their opposition rivals can be unseated if they violate the oaths they are due to take as early as next month.

The call on Monday came just days after the government confirmed more than 400 district councillors – mostly opposition activists elected in a landslide victory at the height of the 2019 protests – would be required to pledge allegiance to the city, a move interpreted by some as paving the way for mass disqualifications.

The administration is set to introduce an amendment to the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance after the Lunar New Year holiday that will bring it into alignment with the national security law. The Beijing-imposed legislation requires any resident “who stands for election or assumes public office” to swear to uphold the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and pledge allegiance to the city.

Civil servants take a pledge of allegiance at a ceremony presided over by senior officials last month. Photo: Handout

In their petition, 86 pro-establishment district councillors urged the government to both speed up its work and specifically amend the District Councils Ordinance to stipulate that anyone breaching their oath could be stripped of their seat.

“The district councils, over the past year, have lost their function as a consultative body and become a platform for the opposition camp to smear the central and the local governments,” lawmaker Edward Lau Kwok-fan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said after a group meeting with Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai on Monday.

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