Pro-democracy lawmakers yesterday filed legal challenges to the election of Hong Kong’s new leader just days after he took office amid the biggest demonstrations in the territory in nearly a decade.
Organizers said 400,000 people took to the streets on Sunday to protest against Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s (梁振英) leadership and Beijing’s interference in local affairs, hours after Leung was sworn in as chief executive before Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho (何俊仁) said he filed two separate legal cases with the high court yesterday, seeking to oust Leung on grounds that the leader allegedly made false statements during the election campaign.
“I just want to uphold the integrity of the system to make sure we have a fair election,” said Ho, who contested against Leung and another candidate in the leadership election in March, but finished third.
“Our system is already less than democratic, it’s undemocratic, at least the minimum we want is that the process was held strictly in accordance with the laws,” the lawyer said.
Leung was picked by a 1,200-strong committee packed with pro-Beijing elites in March in a process dubbed a “small circle” election, where the territory’s 7 million population does not get to choose its own leader by popular vote.
The legal challenges were centered on Leung’s pledge that his house had no illegal improvement works — a controversial issue in Hong Kong that saw support for Leung’s main rival Henry Tang (唐英年) dramatically plunge during the race after an illegal basement was found at his home.
However, Leung, a surveyor by profession, was forced to apologize last week after local media discovered his home in an upscale neighborhood had six illegal structures, and to quickly demolish them.
Citing local laws, Ho claimed Leung had engaged in “illegal conduct” by making a “false and misleading statement” and asked the court to declare that Leung was not duly elected, according to a copy of the court filing.
Ho is also seeking an injunction to stop Leung from acting in the office to which he has been elected.
The court has yet to fix a date to hear both cases.
Maverick lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) filed a similar lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the leader’s win.
Even before he began his term, Leung had already attracted protests drawing thousands of people decrying Beijing interference in the leadership poll, but he has urged the public to work with him.
POLAND-GERMANY RIFT: Warsaw’s response to Berlin over a NATO system that would increase the alliance’s involvement in the war came as Kyiv accused Russia of war crimes Anti-missile systems that Germany offered to send to Poland should instead go to Ukraine, the Polish government said on Thursday, a proposal that is likely a nonstarter for Berlin because it would significantly ratchet up NATO involvement in Ukraine. Poland’s surprising response to Berlin’s offer was welcomed by Ukraine, which is desperate to protect its airspace as barrages of Russian missiles have knocked out power across the country. German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said that use of NATO defense systems outside its territory needs to be agreed by all member states. “It is important to us that Poland can rely on allies
AWAITING EXTRADITION: Daniel Duggan has been classified as ‘extreme high risk,’ has not been allowed to use stationery and has been denied treatment, his lawyer said The lawyer for a former US military pilot arrested in Australia and facing possible extradition to the US said that his client was wrongly classified as an “extreme high-risk” prisoner, and he had asked the attorney-general to release him. Former US Marines pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan was arrested in New South Wales in October at the request of the US government, the same week the UK announced a crackdown on its former military pilots working to train Chinese military fliers. The US must lodge an extradition request for Duggan by Dec. 20 under a bilateral treaty, a Sydney court was told yesterday.
WARTIME DIPLOMACY: Zelenskiy met EU leaders and hosted the International Summit on Food Security, which included discussions on agricultural exports from Ukraine Fleeing shelling, civilians on Saturday streamed out of the southern Ukrainian city whose recapture they had celebrated just weeks earlier. The exodus from Kherson came as Ukraine solemnly remembered a Stalin-era famine and sought to ensure that Russia’s war in Ukraine does not deprive others worldwide of its vital food exports. A line of trucks, vans and cars, some towing trailers or ferrying out pets and other belongings, stretched 1km or more on the outskirts of the city of Kherson. Days of intensive shelling by Russian forces prompted a bittersweet exodus: Many civilians were happy that their city had been won back, but
MONEY-MAKING SCHEME: Some students said they were misled about study or work opportunities, or were not told that they were coming to a self-proclaimed republic Foreign students are big business in northern Cyprus, a tiny, breakaway statelet only recognized by Turkey, but some warn that university recruiters are selling “dreams” in the internationally and economically isolated territory. One Nigerian student, who asked to remain anonymous, said he expected to arrive in the country whose soccer teams compete in European tournaments. Instead, when he saw the currency was the embattled Turkish lira, he realized this was “not the Cyprus I thought it was.” The Mediterranean island is divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and a northern statelet established after Turkey launched a 1974 invasion in
RSS