7 Hong Kong opposition district councillors disqualified after deadline passes for submission of information to determine oath validity
- Sources previously said some among the group were asked to further explain past behaviour, including their participation in a July 2020 primary election
- Total of 24 members from four district councils became first batch of municipal-level politicians to take oaths under security law requirement
In a statement, a Home Affairs Bureau spokesman said the seven – Wan Chai district councillors Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying and Leung Pak-kin, Southern district councillor Michael Pang Cheuk-kei, and Eastern district councillors Wei Siu-lik, So Yat-hang, Lancelot Chan Wing-tai and Anna Lai Tsz-yan – had been unseated by Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai with immediate effect.
“After considering the written replies from the [district council] members concerned and all relevant information, the oath administrator, based on the principles laid down by the interpretation and the relevant legal provisions, determined that the oaths taken by seven members were invalid,” he added.
The interpretation referred to a decision laid down by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top legislative body, in November 2016 which specified that Hong Kong’s public officers must take their oaths sincerely, or be disqualified by an administrator.
Inquiries were delivered to the district councillors just hours after they took their oaths on Friday under a national security law requirement that all public officers must pledge to uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the city as a special administrative region of China.