'Govt Should Study Whether CE Polls Should Go Ahead'

Hong Kong's sole delegate to the nation's top legislative body, Tam Yiu-chung, said on Thursday that authorities should study whether next month's chief executive election should go ahead in view of the coronavirus outbreaks.

Tam Yiu-chung of the National People's Congress Standing Committee told a Commercial Radio programme that containing the outbreaks should be the city's top priority, as instructed by President Xi Jinping.

He said other matters should give way to anti-epidemic work to "avoid distraction".

"It's very important to control the outbreaks as soon as possible because it's a life-and-death matter. President Xi Jinping said it should be our top priority. Whatever we do should be conducive to the pandemic situation. For something that may distract us, we can put it on hold," he said.

"The chief executive election might affect some potential candidates who might have responsibilities in anti-epidemic work. I believe the central government and the SAR government should study what arrangements should be made."

However, executive councillor Ronny Tong said the matter should be considered very carefully because the Basic Law states that a Chief Executive's term should be five years.

Putting back the election, the senior counsel said, could be unfair to the incoming Hong Kong leader:

"Under our local election laws, we can postpone the election for up to 42 days. But I think one must be very careful here – because if you postpone the election, it means correspondingly, you're restricting the time available for the next administration to form a new government," he said.

"That would be wholly unfair to the new Chief Executive."

Chief Executive Carrie Lam had said earlier that the CE polls on Mach 27 would go ahead as scheduled.

A two-week nomination period is scheduled to start on February 20.