Hong Kong protests: plan mulled to partially cancel district council elections if polling stations targeted, as Joshua Wong announces candidacy
- Source says government looking into the possibility of cancelling polls in areas where serious protests are taking place
- Wong announces candidacy in South Horizons West, on fifth anniversary of Occupy movement
District council elections in November could be partially cancelled if protesters attempt to disrupt polling stations, according to a plan being studied by the Hong Kong government.
Word of the potential move, revealed by a government source, came as Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the poster boy of the city’s pro-democracy movement, announced on Saturday that he planned to run in the election, which comes on the heels of the months-long unrest triggered by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
“[The elections in] November are the first institutional method to show our landslide public discontent since the summer of discontent,” Wong, secretary general of youth-led group Demosisto, said on Saturday.
“I’m of the view that a high voting turnout is essential to put pressure on the Hong Kong government and President Xi Jinping.”
Candidates from the pro-democracy bloc were expected to enjoy the upper hand in the citywide polls by riding the wave of discontent, with Beijing-friendly lawmaker Alice Mak Mei-kuen previously warning that her camp risked being punished by voters because of the fallout, and losing more than a third of its vote share.
