The Hong Kong government on Tuesday said that remaining elected district councilors would still need to take an oath pledging allegiance to the semiautonomous territory, despite the resignation of dozens of their peers who are refusing to do so.
About 170 district councilors, most of them supporters of the territory’s beleaguered democracy movement, have over the past week resigned rather than take the oath, a tally by a local news site showed.
The resignations follow media reports that councilors might have to repay their wages if they are later disqualified from office.
Photo: Reuters
The government has not confirmed or denied those reports.
The requirement that the territory’s more than 400 district councilors take the oath was introduced this year. Previously, only lawmakers and government officials were required to take the oath and pledge allegiance to the government.
The requirement is seen as part of a broader crackdown on the democracy movement in the former British colony, which has seen an erosion of the freedoms it was promised it could maintain after being handed to Chinese control in 1997.
A Beijing-imposed National Security Law has led to the arrest of many of the territory’s prominent democracy figures, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英).
A majority of such activists are currently behind bars or have fled abroad.
Hong Kong’s district councilors largely take care of municipal matters such as organizing construction projects and ensuring that public facilities are in order.
However, their election took on symbolic importance after Hong Kong was rocked by democracy protests for much of 2019.
In elections that year, many pro-democracy candidates unseated incumbent councilors seen as loyal to Beijing.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) on Tuesday said at a regular news conference that she is sure that given the security law, each district councilor would gauge their past behavior to check if they have “crossed a line.”
“Individual incumbent district councilors of their own accord took some actions after seeing that there are certain legal requirements, that is, legal liabilities will have to be borne if they have violated certain rules and regulations,” Lam said. “They decided to resign. This is out of our control.”
Lam said that despite the exodus of district councilors, authorities would press on with the oath-taking for the remaining councilors.
She also brushed off concerns about whether the resignation of the councilors would affect the operations of Hong Kong’s district councils.
“That factor is not to be considered by us, because we have to implement the law,” she said. “Should there be any outcome, any consequences, we will deal with them.”
Among the councilors to resign over the oath is Democratic Party chairman Lo Kin-hei (羅健熙), who has been a district councilor since 2012.
Lo said that Hong Kong’s 18 district councils are the “most democratic platform” in the territory because people can directly choose their own representatives.
“With the result of the 2019 election, it is clearly shown that Hong Kong people support the pro-democracy camp,” Lo said.
He accused the government of seeking to disqualify councilors and then go after their finances in efforts that could bankrupt people.
“That is a risk that people don’t want to take,” he said.
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