HK postpones polls due to coronavirus
Hong Kong, July 31: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced Friday that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
The Hong Kong government is invoking an emergency ordinance in delaying the elections. Ms Lam said the government has the support of the Chinese government in making the decision to hold the elections on September 5, 2021.
“The announcement I have to make today is the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in the past seven months,” Ms Lam said at a news conference. We want to ensure fairness and public safety and health, and need to make sure the election is held in an open, fair and impartial manner. This decision is therefore essential, she said.
The postponement is a setback for the prodemocracy opposition, which was hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with the current pro-Beijing majority to make gains.
Hong Kong, July 31: Hong Kong’s democracy supporters were dealt a huge blow Friday as authorities postponed local elections for a year because of the Coronvirus, capping a devastating month of political disqualifications, arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas.
Chinese state media reported late Friday that Hong Kong police have ordered the arrest of six pro-democracy activists living in exile on suspicion of violating a new national security law.
The city’s democracy camp has come under sustained attack since Beijing imposed the sweeping security law last month — a move China’s leaders described as a “sword” hanging over the head of its critics.
The ensuing weeks have sent a chill through a city used to speaking its mind and supposedly guaranteed certain freedoms and autonomy in a “One Country, Two Systems” deal agreed ahead of its 1997 handover from Britain.
On Friday evening chief executive Carrie Lam, a pro-Beijing appointee, announced that September elections for the financial hub’s legislature would be delayed for a year using emergency anti-virus powers.
She denied the move was a political decision to hobble the city’s opposition.
“I am only paying attention to the current pandemic situation,” she said.
Beijing welcomed the move as “necessary, reasonable and legal”.
But the decision infuriated democracy supporters who had warned against any move to delay the polls, accusing authorities of using the Covid-19 pandemic to avoid a drubbing at the ballot box.
“This is a sleazy, contemptible political act to help thwart any victory on the part of the democrats in the original election,” opposition lawmaker Claudia Mo said, warning that public anger could explode.