Hong Kong lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai was disqualified on Thursday from sitting on the newly expanded Election Committee, and also lost his seat on the Legislative Council after a review panel declared he was not upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the special administrative region.
Cheng was one of the two candidates disqualified from among the 1,498 contenders, said John Lee Ka-chiu, head of the city’s seven-member Candidate Eligibility Review Committee, established after the city’s electoral reform.
The government will go all-out to ensure that the elections are fair and equitable, and that the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" is upheld.
John Lee Ka-chiu, Head of Hong Kong’s Candidate Eligibility Review Committee
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Lee said that Cheng also must forfeit his seat in LegCo, in accordance with a November decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Hong Kong lawmakers’ eligibility for the legislative body.
Lee said the Review Committee asked Cheng to provide additional documents and explanations, and sought opinions from the National Security Committee. The Security Committee subsequently ruled that Cheng should be disqualified from running for the Election Committee.
The other disqualified candidate is not registered as a voter of their geographical constituency, Lee said. The government has already informed the two candidates of their respective disqualification, he said.
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Lee said that the examination aims to ensure that those who only pretend to support the Basic Law and feign loyalty to the Hong Kong SAR cannot pass through.
“The government will go all-out to ensure that the elections are fair and equitable, and that the principle of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong’ is upheld”, Lee said.