Lau Siu-lai Drops Legco Disqualification Appeal

Ousted lawmaker Lau Siu-lai on Tuesday confirmed she is dropping an appeal against a court decision last July to strip her of her Legco seat, saying the process was taking too long and she is now drained both mentally and financially.

Lau was removed from office over the way she took her lawmaker oath in a case brought by the government that also saw Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung and Edward Yiu ousted from the Legislative Council. Localists Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching had earlier suffered the same fate over their botched oaths.

Lau, from Democracy Groundwork, read her oath extremely slowly, with pauses in between each word. She was later allowed a second chance to take the oath properly. But the High Court ruled that she did not "genuinely and faithfully" commit to the obligations she pledged.

While by-elections were held in March for the seats formerly held by Law, Yiu, Yau and Sixtus Leung, none were slated for Lau's Kowloon West seat or Leung Kwok-hung's New Territories East constituency because of their appeals.

Lau said she remains undecided on whether she will seek re-election when the by-election for her seat does come up, and the issue still needs to be discussed by the pro-democracy camp.

She said she backs the idea of former unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan preparing an election bid in case she does not – or cannot – stand herself.

"He is a very experienced person to improve our living conditions, to fight against the government. I think he can unite us together to promote a more sophisticated discussion to have a good strategy to fight against the government," she said.

Leung Kwok-hung, meanwhile, says he intends to continue to fight the court's decision to disqualify him.