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Exodus of district councillors prompts Hong Kong to put loyalty pledge on hold – for now
- City leader Carrie Lam says the government will ensure the pledges are taken as required by a recently passed law
- Some members of the opposition camp’s final stronghold in Hong Kong have tendered their resignation while others are bracing for disqualification
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A wave of resignations by district councillors has prompted the government to delay plans for them to pledge allegiance to Hong Kong and its mini-constitution, the city’s leader has revealed.
But authorities would press ahead with ensuring the vows were taken as required under a new law passed by the legislature once the situation in the district councils had stabilised, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday.
The opposition controls all but one of the 18 community-level bodies following elections held during the social unrest that gripped the city in 2019. After the adoption of a national security law last June, Beijing and local authorities turned their focus to weeding out public office holders deemed insufficiently “patriotic” but which critics viewed as an attempt to eliminate dissent.
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All opposition lawmakers quit and some district councillors had tendered their resignations ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, but Lam stressed the pledges were a legal obligation.
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“Why do we have to wait for a certain period of time? That’s because there have been resignations from district councillors on a daily basis,” Lam said at her weekly press briefing. “We may as well wait for the situation to settle down before we start making arrangements for the oath-taking exercise. But the oath-taking will definitely take place.”
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