Hong Kong election officials avoided pro-democracy icon Joshua Wong’s candidacy ruling for district council elections, government source says

After the official in charge of vetting activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung’s candidacy for upcoming elections took indefinite sick leave, not one election officer on Hong Kong Island agreed to take the job, the Post has learned.

When the three eligible returning officers refused to take the post, according to a government source on Friday, the government was forced to appoint Laura Liang Aron, from Yau Tsim Mong district in Kowloon, to replace Dorothy Ma Chau Pui-fun as manager of the Southern District candidacies.

Ma, who went on sick leave on Tuesday, had twice questioned Wong on his allegiance to China. But Ma did not issue a decision as to whether the 23-year-old activist was cleared to run in district council elections next month.

“All district officers from Eastern, Wan Chai and Central and Western Districts turned down the offer,” said the government insider. “So that’s why officials turned to Laura.”

The source continued: “It’s widely believed to be related to whether to disqualify Wong.”

According to electoral procedures, district officers under the Home Affairs Department can assume the role of returning officers to validate candidates during elections. The source said the Home Affairs Department started approaching eligible vetting officials on Wednesday.

The abrupt departure of Ma fuelled speculation that she might have resigned. The Civil Service Bureau said Ma still held her position and would need to give three months notice before stepping down.

Ma has also declined multiple requests for comment. Aron was expected to make a decision on Wong’s candidacy before October 31, which is the legal deadline.

Aron, who has been a district officer for five years, was described by two former colleagues as “fairly liberal”. They said she left the mainland to study and live in Hong Kong after the Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989. A Yau Tsim Mong district councillor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aron was a reasonable person.

“If someone said she was put there to disqualify [Joshua Wong], I’d say that wouldn’t happen,” the councillor said. “I know this person and she is not very conservative.”

Wong and other pro-democracy candidates on Thursday protested against the delay at a briefing by the Electoral Affairs Commission, a statutory body overseeing local elections.

The briefing was forced to end after 30 minutes while protesters chanted “No political censorship!”

In a statement on Friday, the Electoral Affairs Commission, which announced the replacement of Ma on Thursday, distanced itself from the saga, saying it was the government’s decision to appoint Aron.

“The government is fully in charge of the acting arrangement of district officers, and the commission has no role in it,” the commission said in a statement. “The appointed district officer will be the returning officer de jure.”

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The statutory body called for election procedures to be respected and upheld. The commission said it would not give instruction to returning officers or play any role in the vetting process of candidates. Legal sources, however, said the Department of Justice would advise returning officers tasked with handling nominations.

On a radio show on Thursday, Wong said he believed Ma was under immense pressure from Beijing, and that she did not want the responsibility of whether to approve or disqualify him.

Wong’s would-be rival, Judy Chan Ka-pui of the New People's Party, said the current limbo was also unfair to her campaign. She said a large portion of her press material had to be put on hold because she had not been given a formal candidacy number.

She said there would be no stalemate if Wong had offered yes-or-no answers on his positions about Hong Kong’s self-determination and independence when questioned by Ma.

Additional reporting by Sum Lok-kei