Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong is stuck in election limbo, with officials failing to confirm whether or not he is eligible to run for district council even as other already-confirmed candidates prepare to gather for a briefing due to take place tonight.
Wong announced on Sept. 28 that he had applied to run in the Southern district in the upcoming district council elections on Nov. 24. But last week, Wong was among a number of pro-democracy candidates who were sent letters by election officials asking them to clarify their stance on Hong Kong independence — a red line for Beijing.
While many of the candidates were asked to elaborate on whether their previous use of the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times” had pro-independence connotations, Wong was asked to clarify whether he was representing Demosisto, a localist political party he co-founded, and also whether he agreed that the goal of “self-determination” for Hongkongers included the option of independence.
Though most of the other candidates asked similar questions have since had their candidacies confirmed in recent days, Wong’s candidacy is still up in the air as the returning officer for his district, Dorothy Ma, has neither approved nor rejected his application to run. It remains unclear whether Wong will be allowed to attend the candidate briefing at AsiaWorld-Expo tonight at 8pm.
This morning, Wong tried to take matters into his own hands by going to speak to Ma, only to find out that she wasn’t in her office.
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In a Facebook post from this afternoon, Wong said that staff from Ma’s office said she “hasn’t been into work, she’s not in her office, and we don’t know when she’ll be back.”
He added that Ma’s absence shows she is “under tremendous political pressure,” and that “it is reasonable to conclude that the Beijing and Hong Kong government want to disqualify me.”
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Hours after Wong’s visit, the government issued a press release saying that Ma is on sick leave, and that the EOC have arranged for Laura Aron — the returning officer for Yau Tsim Mong district — to take on Ma’s job of approving or rejecting candidates for southern district starting from today.
Wong said he has repeatedly stressed to officials that his stance is the same as that of other candidates who have been deemed eligible to run, that he supports the “one country, two systems” framework, and has never advocated Hong Kong independence.
Wong said in a Facebook post last night that he was told if no decision was made on his candidacy before tonight’s meeting, then the assigning of numbers to candidates for South Horizons West constituency will be postponed.
Wong’s predicament comes as a number of prominent pro-democracy activists have had their candidacy for the district council elections confirmed, despite facing similar hurdles.
Tommy Cheung, Billy Chan, and Fleco Mo, all of whom were questioned over their use of the “liberate Hong Kong” slogan, have all had their candidacies approved, the Standard reports.
The official inquiries seeking candidates’ stance on independence are reminiscent of the case of former Demosisto candidate Agnes Chow, who was summarily barred from a LegCo by-election last year — without being given a chance to clarify her stance — due to a returning officer’s assumption that her belief in “self-determination” was tantamount to supporting independence, and therefore inherently incompatible with the Basic Law. Earlier this month, the High Court overturned the decision to disqualify her, saying that at the very least, officials should be required to give candidates an opportunity to defend their stance in similar circumstances.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, lawmaker Eddie Chu also announced on Facebook that his application to run for the Pat Heung South constituency in Yuen Long district had been approved. There were concerns that Chu wouldn’t be allowed to run after he was barred from a rural election in December of 2018 because he had allegedly “implicitly” maintained support for self-determination since 2016.
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Other high-profile names to be confirmed so far include former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, aka Long Hair, and Jimmy Sham, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, the organization behind the many peaceful rallies that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in the last few months.
Also confirmed was activist Lester Shum, who was deputy secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students during the 2014 Umbrella movement, and Tiffany Yuen, a former vice chairwoman of Demosisto who quit the party last year citing differences in the party’s direction.
After the nominating period closed, the Electoral Affairs Commission confirmed that they had received 1,104 nomination forms for a total of 452 constituencies across 18 districts.
