Govt No Longer Cares What World Thinks: Alvin Yeung

Civic Party leader, Alvin Yeung, has said that it would be difficult for the international community to accept Hong Kong is still an international city after 12 members of the pro-democracy camp were disqualified from running in the upcoming Legco elections.

Yeung was among those who received letters from returning officers saying their Legco nominations have been invalidated. The government said the electoral officers were correct in referring to a court ruling, which stated that the nominee must have the intention to not just comply with the Basic Law, but to “support, promote, and embrace it”.

Speaking to an RTHK radio programme on Friday, Yeung said there was no objective criteria for ruling a nomination invalid, and said it was like "a floating red line".

He said that if moderate voices from the opposition camp – like Kenneth Leung who was barred from running in the accountancy functional constituency – were not accepted, then it means that Legco will not tolerate differing or opposing views.

Yeung also said this incident has made it difficult for the international community to believe that One Country, Two Systems is still feasible, and that the elections are being run fairly.

"It seems like this government is so shameless that they no longer care about what the world thinks," said Yeung.

"But again if this Hong Kong government is still trying to convince the rest of the world that 'hey this is an international city, there's still One Country, Two Systems', then of course they have to make up even more excuses or put up more reasons to convince others."

"But it seems like this this is unconvincing and I do not think it is easy to convince there's still One Country, Two Systems," he said.

Yeung also said that even the Civic Party ends up being barred completely from Legco, this would not mean the end to their campaign for democracy. He said that they still have a platform to voice their opinions as they still have some 30 district councillors in the city.

HIs comments come after 12 members of the pro-democracy camp were disqualified from running in the upcoming Legco elections slated for September 6, although there has been speculation that the polls could be delayed by up to a year if the Covid-19 situation does not improve.