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.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
RSS