The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Protests at election delay
Hundreds arrested during anti-government demonstrations
More than 280 people have been arrested at protests against the government’s decision to postpone elections for Hong Kong’s legislature.
The elections were to have taken place yesterday but chief executive Carrie Lam postponed them for one year on July 31.
Ms Lam blamed an upsurge in coronavirus cases, but critics said her government was worried the opposition would gain seats if voting went ahead.
Police said 289 people had been arrested, mostly for unlawful assembly.
One woman was arrested in the Kowloon district of Yau Ma Tei on charges of assault and spreading proindependence slogans, the police department said on its Facebook page. It said such slogans are illegal under a newly-enacted national security law.
The anti-government protests erupted last year over a proposed extradition law and spread to include demands for greater democracy and criticism of Beijing’s efforts to tighten control over the former British colony.
Covid-19 and the tough new law diminished protests, but smaller groups still take to the streets from time to time.
The ruling Communist Party’s decision to impose the law in May prompted complaints it was violating the autonomy promised to the territory when it was returned to China in 1997.
Washington withdrew trading privileges granted to Hong Kong and other governments suspended extradition and other agreements on the grounds that the territory of seven million people is no longer autonomous.
Also yesterday, police fired pepper balls at protesters in Kowloon’s Mongkok neighbourhood and in nearby Jordan neighbourhood after they raised a banner criticising the election delay.