Hong Kong rulers use pandemic as excuse to delay city parliament elections

Pro-Beijing politicians are using the pandemic to suggest the Sept 6 election should be postponed by up to a year.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (C) arrives for the funeral of late Macau tycoon Stanley Ho in Hong Kong. Picture: AFP.

The Hong Kong government is poised to postpone elections for the city parliament, where the pro-Beijing majority was under threat, blaming a resurgence of coronavirus.

Pro-Beijing politicians have suggested that the election, scheduled for September 6, should be postponed by as much as a year. Elections to the council take place every four years.

Citing unnamed sources, the news website hk01.com reported on Tuesday that the decision had been made but that there would be no formal announcement until early August, after the executive council has held a special meeting on the issue. Carrie Lam, the chief executive, can delay an election in case of riots, open violence or danger to public health for two weeks. She can also invoke an emergency law to postpone the election to a designated date.

The election would have been the first territory-wide vote since a massive pro-democracy movement broke out in June last year. The pro-democracy bloc was hopeful that it could win a majority.

1/ Using pandemic as an excuse to postpone the election is definitely a lie. In the past 6months the govt did not deter the inflow across the border, leading to the rebound today. https://t.co/uEdZepbxsV

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) July 28, 2020

2/ Clearly hygiene measures can step up to lower the risk of infection, like what we did during the democratic primaries voting. But the govt knows only to interfere with the election that used to be free and fair, either disqualifying my candidacy or to call off the election.

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) July 28, 2020

Joshua Wong, a prominent campaigner who is running for the city parliament, said that using COVID-19 as an excuse to postpone the election would be “definitely a lie”. “In the past six months the government did not deter the inflow across the border, leading to the rebound today,” Mr Wong tweeted. “Clearly hygiene measures can step up to lower the risk of infection.”

Benny Tai, a law professor, wrote on Facebook that the postponement was a sign that the pro-Beijing camp was worried about losing. “It looks like even those in power know they’ve lost the heart of the people,” he said.

There has been a surge in coronavirus cases in Hong Kong, which reported a record high of 145 new infections on Tuesday. The authorities say that the 1,200 hospital beds for coronavirus patients are almost full and that they are planning to seek help from Beijing.

The Times