on Thursday, the authorities have informed the 12 candidates pro-democracy that they did not have the right to stand for parliamentary elections in September, including Wong.
Joshua Wong, the figure of the pro-democracy movement in hong Kong, promised on Friday to continue the fight despite invalidation of multiple candidates in legislative elections, including his own, presented as an “electoral fraud” without precedent.
“Our resistance will continue and we hope that the world will be at our side in the battles to come,” said at a press conference, the activist, 23-year-old had been the face of the “Movement Umbrellas” in 2014.
Dressed in a black t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “They can’t kill us all”, he criticised the disqualification, yesterday, 12 candidates from the opposition pro-democracy. “This is without doubt the period of electoral fraud, the most scandalous in the history of hong Kong”, said that the authorities had already prevented from presenting themselves to the local elections of November, during which the camp pro-democracy had triumphed.
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The invalidation of such applications is an illustration of most of the taken in hand muscular, operated by Beijing in the former british colony, however, supposed to enjoy a large degree of autonomy until 2047 under the principle of “One country, two systems”.
Refusal of applications
In response to the events of 2019, that were unprecedented since the handover in 1997, Beijing has imposed on Hong Kong at the end of June a controversial bill on national security, denounced by the camp pro-democracy as an instrument to silence any dissent.
Thursday, the authorities have informed the 12 candidates pro-democracy that they did not have the right to stand in the September elections to renew the legislative Council (LegCo), the city Parliament.
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In a press release, the executive has established a long list of reasons in support of these disqualifications, citing the fact that some candidates have criticized the law on the safety or refused to recognize the sovereignty of China. More preposterous, it has been criticized by some, the fact that they have the intention to conquer the majority in the LegCo.
The camp pro-democracy hoped to build on the popularity of the protests of the past year, and on his success in the local elections in November, for the first time the majority in the LegCo, which is composed in such a way that it looks normally almost automatically on the side of the Pro-Beijing.
More than 600 000 hong Kong people had participated in mid-July to the primaries organised by the ‘ pro-democracy in the city of 7.5 million people, a consultation widely regarded as a great popular success.
To a postponement of the elections?
Here, however many days that doubts are raised about the conduct of these elections. Several local media outlets have reported this week of the intention of the executive of the reporter due to the recent increase in cases of Covid-19, which prompted the authorities to harden considerably the restrictions. No official announcement has been made. Any postponement will also probably fuel the accusations of instrumentalisation of the epidemic.
After the elections of 2016, several of the elected pro-democracy had been disqualified for having deliberately altered their swearing-in to show their hostility vis-à-vis the influence of China. The invalidation of the nominations fell in less than 24 hours after the arrest Wednesday night of four students, three men and one woman between the ages of 16 to 21-year-old former member of an organization advocating the independence and recently dissolved.
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these were the first arrests by the police unit based in hong kong established to ensure compliance with the safety act. The day before, the camp pro-democracy was moved to the announcement of the dismissal, by the University of hong Kong the law professor Benny Tai, who had been imprisoned in 2019, the last year for his role in the “Movement umbrellas”. Lawyer, a tireless non-violence, Tai had been one of the organizers of the primary prodémocrates.
hong Kong has experienced in the year 2019, a vast movement of protest of the chinese influence, which has been marked by several months of protests on an almost daily basis, which have sometimes degenerated into violence between radicals and anti-riot police.
