Hong Kong election may be delayed by violence
• After months of protests this rare bastion of democracy under Chinese rule faces a big setback
Hong Kong has been gripped for almost five months by demonstrations demanding greater democracy. Now, a pair of bloody attacks on candidates is raising questions about whether the city can even hold an election.
On Wednesday, a pro-Beijing legislator known for verbal attacks on protesters was stabbed on the street while campaigning. Earlier this week, a pro-democracy candidate had a piece of his ear bitten off in a vicious brawl.
Both men are seeking one of the more-than 450 district council seats up for grabs on November 24, in what will be the first city-wide vote since a wave of protests struck the former British colony in June. The vote has emerged as a test of the city’s commitment to democracy amid protests that led to vandalism, police clashes and occasional mob violence.
The city’s Beijing-appointed CEO, Carrie Lam, has the authority to decide whether to delay the vote. The election could be delayed by “riot, open violence or any danger to public health or safety”, according to a government submission to the city legislature.
“I’m greatly worried that the only democratic election we can have might be torpedoed by all of this,” said Ronny Tong, a lawyer and government adviser. “People are beginning to question whether it’s safe to carry on with the elections as if nothing has happened.”
A delay would be a setback to a rare bastion of democracy under Chinese rule. Although district councillors have little political power, they help choose electors that select the city’s top leader. The election is expected to set the tone for a more consequential vote for seats on the local legislature next year. Hong Kong’s government is legally allowed to delay the vote for as long as 14 days, but in October, Lam invoked colonial emergency powers ordinance for the first time since 1967 to ban masks worn by protesters, and could do so again to push back the elections. One Lam adviser suggested in an interview with news site HK01 that if protests continue past a certain date the vote should be postponed.
Still, such a move risks further inflaming tensions and provoking US legislators to get more aggressive in supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp. The Hong Kong government said it “severely condemns” the attack but did not say if the stabbing of legislator Junius Ho influenced its decision holding the election.
A man handing him flowers pulled a knife and stabbed him in the chest. He said his wound “was superficial”, but it was a “dark day” and “the climate of the election is unjust and order is already lost”.
Activist Jimmy Sham of the Civil Human Rights Front, which staged some of the biggest protests, was attacked a second time in October after saying he would run.
Yeung Tsz Hei, a proestablishment candidate, was kicked while campaigning on Wednesday morning, HK01 reported. A man verbally harassed, attempted to kick him and later returned to throw an unidentified liquid at him, it said.
The importance of this year’s election is magnified by five months of unrest sparked by a bill allowing extradition to mainland China. This grew into a movement for greater democracy. With Lam’s popularity at a record low, legislators hope for huge gains over pro-establishment rivals.
A strong showing in the election could make the opposition a thorn in Beijing’s side as Chinese officials seek to get their candidate elected.
“This is a great irony, that for many years, Hong Kong people enjoyed a level of civil liberties
— personal safety, rule of law, independence of judiciary — much higher than many countries with periodic elections, both in Asia and elsewhere,” said Emily Lau, a veteran of Hong Kong electoral politics, opposition Democracy Party member and adviser to candidates.
“But now, in the past four or five months, suddenly all these things are crumbling down before our very eyes. There’s all these connections that the outside world may not be aware of, but make Beijing very, very concerned,” she said.
Tong, the pro-establishment legislator, said that any election violence could prompt Beijing to clamp down on freedoms.
“We’re putting the continuation of ‘one country, two systems’ at risk,” Tong said, referring to the system by which Beijing rules over Hong Kong’s capitalist society.
“If Beijing were to say, ‘well, I’m fed up with this, and I’ll do what I can to restore law and order’, you can imagine what it would be like for people in Hong Kong — and that’s the dangerous thing that we see on the horizon.”/Bloomberg
HONG KONG PEOPLE ENJOYED CIVIL A LEVEL OF LIBERTIES HIGHER THAN MANY COUNTRIES WITH PERIODIC ELECTIONS
IF BEIJING WERE TO SAY ‘ I ’ LL DO WHAT I CAN TO RESTORE LAW AND ORDER’ YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE ...