Hong Kong lawmakers, district councillors face instant disqualification after taking oath if their behaviour is ‘problematic’, senior official warns

Constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang also reveals the government is studying whether opposition district councillors who resign rather than pledge allegiance will have to return public funds

He says encouraging the public to cast protest votes could be seen as ‘manipulating elections’

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Moves such as raising an umbrella, carried out here by former legislator Leung Kwok-hung in 2016, during oath-taking is not acceptable, officials have warned. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:12pm, 7 Apr 2021Updated: 8:48pm, 7 Apr 2021

Lawmakers and district councillors could be disqualified immediately after taking their oath of office if their behaviour was deemed “problematic”, Hong Kong’s constitutional affairs minister warned on Wednesday.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai also revealed in the legislature that the government was studying whether opposition district councillors who resigned rather than pledge allegiance to the city and its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, would have to return public funds.

Tsang was asked whether politicians who called for voters to cast blank ballots in elections would be seen as violating their loyalty pledge. The question was prompted by escalating debate in the city on whether it should be made illegal to cast blank ballots as a protest against Beijing’s sweeping overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system.

Erick Tsang, the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs. Photo: Dickson Lee

The minister said encouraging the public to cast protest votes could be seen as “manipulating elections”, which might violate the Basic Law, but individuals would not be banned over their personal choice.

“Everyone has the right to decide whether to vote, but calling for blank or invalid votes may change the results of the election, and to a certain extent, the person is manipulating the election,” he told the Legislative Council, adding the government was looking into whether regulations were needed.

Questions concerning oath-taking requirements – which are to be extended from executive councillors and lawmakers to district council members – were raised as legislators met to examine draft legislation, formally called the Public Offices (Candidacy and Taking Up Offices) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2021.

Hong Kong lawmakers, district councillors face instant disqualification after taking oath if their behaviour is ‘problematic’, senior official warns

Constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang also reveals the government is studying whether opposition district councillors who resign rather than pledge allegiance will have to return public funds He says encouraging the public to cast protest votes could be seen as ‘manipulating elections’

Constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang also reveals the government is studying whether opposition district councillors who resign rather than pledge allegiance will have to return public funds

He says encouraging the public to cast protest votes could be seen as ‘manipulating elections’