Erick Tsang 'gaffe' Raises Election Concerns

An apparent slip of the tongue by the new Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang on Thursday gave rise to concerns among the opposition camp that the government is poised to disqualify more candidates in the upcoming Legislative Council election.

Tsang was answering reporters’ questions for the first time since being named constitutional affairs chief on Wednesday, when one asked him about rumours that he would be cracking down on pro-democracy candidates by disqualifying them.

“These are just conspiracy theories”, Tsang answered.

“Any disqualifications will be done according to the law. If you meet the conditions for becoming a candidate, then how I can disqualify you, right? So long as they uphold the Basic Law and support the SAR government, there’s absolutely no problem”, he said.

The last comment raised eyebrows among the opposition, with Democratic Party legislator Ted Hui saying according to this logic, only candidates who support all government policies can run, and all pan-democrats can thus be disqualified.

It’s not our constitutional responsibility to support the government”, Hui said.

“There are bills and proposals that we don’t agree with… and the citizens, the public doesn’t agree with, so we’ll vote no. He’s broadening the line of disqualifying us, paving the path to disqualifying us”, he concluded.

Several hours after Tsang made the comments, the government’s Information Services Department put out an amended transcript of his comments in Chinese, suggesting the new minister had misspoken.

The transcript mostly faithfully reflected what Tsang said, but followed the part about “supporting the SAR government” with a note saying that the word “support” should have been “pledge allegiance to”.

The word ‘government’ was also omitted, leaving the amended sentence saying “So long as they uphold the Basic Law and [pledge allegiance to] the SAR, there’s absolutely no problem”.

Tsang’s predecessor, Patrick Nip, who was moved to head the Civil Service Bureau as part of the Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s cabinet reshuffle, had been forced to apologise as one of his last acts as constitutional affairs chief after his bureau issued a set of contradictory statements that ultimately reversed the government’s long-standing position that Article 22 of the Basic Law applies to Beijing’s Liaison Office here.

Election officials have disqualified a number of pro-democracy candidates in past elections due to their perceived positions on self-determination for Hong Kong, leading to concerns that more candidates may be prevented from running in the coming Legco polls.