Five-year election ban proposed for Hong Kong lawmakers, district councillors disqualified over improper oaths

Constitutional affairs chief unveils draft legislation a day after top Beijing official says reforms needed in city to ensure only ‘patriots’ hold key positions

Planned legislation will not have retroactive effect but district councillors’ past conduct will be taken into account when assessing pledges

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Politicians in Hong Kong could be banned from running for office for five years if disqualified for reasons such as improper oath-taking. Photo: Handout

Published: 3:49pm, 23 Feb 2021Updated: 3:15am, 24 Feb 2021

Hong Kong lawmakers and district councillors will be barred from contesting elections for five years if they are disqualified for improper oath-taking or failing to uphold the city’s mini-constitution under a proposed new law, the government announced on Tuesday.

Confirming a report by the Post, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai said even though the planned legislation – approved by the chief executive’s de facto cabinet on Tuesday – would not have retroactive effect, district councillors’ past conduct would be taken into account when determining whether they passed a new mandatory oath-taking procedure.

Tsang unveiled the draft legislation a day after Xia Baolong, the top Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong affairs, declared the city’s administrative and electoral systems needed to undergo a fundamental revision to ensure only “patriots” held key positions in all three branches of government – the executive, legislature and judiciary – as well as statutory bodies.

Since the opposition camp won a landslide victory in 2019 district council polls, pro-establishment legislators have repeatedly accused the municipal-level politicians, who did not need to take an oath of office, of failing to bear allegiance to the city, as they promised when submitting their candidacy.

Opposition lawmakers had also strongly opposed government policies deemed unpopular, which the pro-establishment camp saw as a failure to uphold the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, sparking calls for legislative amendments to empower the administration to unseat politicians.

Under the draft legislation, titled the Public Offices (Candidacy and Taking Up Offices) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2021, the task would be done by the secretary for justice, who would initiate legal procedures for handling cases where an officer was deemed to have violated an oath.

“The councillor’s public office would be suspended, until the court made a decision,” Tsang said.