Hong Kong district councillors have until 5pm Monday to hand over information to authorities scrutinising their oaths of office
- Key to the demand by the Home Affairs Bureau is explaining their roles in a 2020 election primary that saw 47 opposition figures arrested for subversion
- Some of the councillors had signed a statement pledging to vote against the city budget if elected, while others allowed their offices to be used as polling stations
Seven of Hong Kong’s opposition district councillors have been given a Monday deadline to supply additional information about their roles in an unofficial 2020 primary election so authorities can determine if their freshly taken oaths of office are valid, according to sources.
The inquiries were delivered to the seven councillors just hours after they took their oaths of office on Friday under a national security law requirement that all public officers pledge to uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the city as a special administrative region of China.
Sources said some were asked to further explain past behaviour, including their participation in the July 2020 primary election that led to the charging of 47 opposition figures with subversion.
Records showed that Wan Chai District Council chairwoman Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying and Southern district councillor Michael Pang Cheuk-kei had directly joined the primary, while So Yat-hang of the Democratic Party was the second candidate on self-exiled former lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung’s list. Sources said they were among those being asked to submit further information.
Yeung and Pang were also asked to explain to the Home Affairs Bureau why they had signed a statement agreeing to use their power to vote down the budget if they entered Legco, while some others were asked to clarify why they had allowed the opposition camp to use their district council offices as polling stations.