Six members of the Progressive Engineering group were not allowed to run in the Election Committee polls. Photo: Sam Tsang
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2047280/four-more-barred-hong-kong-election-committee-bid-including Politics
Four more barred from Hong Kong Election Committee bid, including student activist Tommy Cheung
Total of 1,539 valid forms received during nomination period
Tommy Cheung Sau-yin said that the returning officers had too much power in determining who was eligible to run for the Election Committee. Photo: May Tse
A total of 1,539 valid nomination forms for the Election Committee polls were received during the nomination period, which ended on Monday, while 10 people were barred from running for the panel that will choose the city’s leader next March.
More than 400 candidates in 13 subsectors are set to be returned unopposed as the number of validly nominated candidates in those subsectors is equal to the number of seats.
Four aspirants were disqualified on Thursday from contesting places on the Election Committee, joining the six candidates rejected earlier this week.
Student activist Tommy Cheung Sau-yin was disqualified by returning officers on Thursday from running in the higher education subsector because of his “insufficient connection” with the sector.
Cheung, a former member of the Chinese University’s Senate, said the returning officers had too much power in determining who could stand. His tenure as senate member expired in February.
Cheung had planned to run in the subsector alongside six other students who are current members of councils and senates of various universities.
“The returning officers’ decision is ridiculous as students are major stakeholders in the higher education sector,” he said.
The three other invalidated nominations were for the sports, education and import and export subsectors.
On Tuesday, six members of a 26-strong engineering group also learned that they had been barred from running for Election Committee seats after a returning officer ruled that they were mainly construction workers who failed to have a vote and “a substantial connection with the engineering subsector”.
The six were part of Progressive Engineering, headed by Albert Lai Kwok-tak of the pan-democratic Professional Commons to run for seats in the committee’s engineering subsector. Their campaign focuses on blocking Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying being elected for another term.
The Election Committee polls are scheduled for December 11. The 1,200-member committee will select the next chief executive next March. The committee members elected next month will come from 38 subsectors representing various trades, professionals, labour and social welfare groups, as well as political bodies.