Council Poll Bans Would Be A New Blow: Au Nok-hin

Pro-democracy lawmaker Au Nok-hin has warned that any move to ban advocates of independence or self-determination from standing in district council elections would "further deteriorate" the political rights of Hong Kong people.

Au was commenting on a report in the pro-Beijing Singtao Daily that suggested the eligibility requirements for candidates in the 2019 district council polls will be as strict as those for recent Legislative Council elections.

Returning officers involved in the 2016 Legco elections, as well as by-elections in March this year, disqualified would-be candidates on the basis that their perceived support for the idea of Hong Kong independence meant they would not uphold the Basic Law.

Prominent localist and pro-democracy activists, such as Demosisto's Agnes Chow, Chan Ho-tin from the Hong Kong National Party, and former Hong Kong indigenous spokesman Edward Leung, were among those banned from taking part in the polls.

Au said on Wednesday that if the newspaper's report is accurate, Hong Kong's democratic development will soon be taking another step backwards.

"There will be the possibility that some candidates of the [district council] elections could be disqualified, only because of your political speech, on account of whether your view respects the Basic Law, something like that," the lawmaker said.

"I'm afraid that it will further deteriorate the political rights of Hong Kong and it's also a deterioration of the political institutions in Hong Kong."

On Tuesday, Agnes Chow filed an election petition in the High Court seeking to overturn the decision to ban her from the Hong Kong Island by-election in March, the seat that Au went on to win in her place.