National security law: at least 150 Hong Kong district councillors face disqualification next month under new oath-taking legislation
- Councillors who ran in opposition’s unofficial primary, offered their offices as polling stations, or threatened to vote down government, at risk of unseating
- Mass disqualification warning follows new oath-taking rules for municipal-level politicians, and could slash opposition representation by more than 40 per cent
Councillors face disqualification not only for taking part in the opposition’s primary run-off last summer to pick the bloc’s Legislative Council candidates, but also for letting the camp use their district offices as polling stations, according to sources.
Officials also plan to unseat those councillors who signed a statement, issued a month before the primary, in which candidates promised to vote down the government’s budget if they were elected and the administration failed to meet the camp’s demands.
“These district councillors face disqualification when the oath-taking ceremonies take place in July,” a government source said.
The source added that all such acts were designed to facilitate the “indiscriminate obstruction” of government business, and so they fell under the definition of subversive under the national security law.
09:09
National Security Law: The impact on Hong Kong’s activists
Endangering national security is one of the criteria triggering disqualification under the new patriotism rules for district councillors, the source notes.
