'Liberate HK Slogan Must Lead To Legco Poll Bans'

A pro-establishment lawmaker on Friday called for anyone who chants the “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution Of Our Times” slogan to be barred from taking part in September's Legco elections.

Priscilla Leung, from the Business and Professionals Alliance, said it would be up to electoral officers to decide whether a would-be candidate who had chanted the slogan before Hong Kong's new national security law was enacted should be banned.

But those who chant it from now on must definitely be disqualified, she insisted.

"From a point of view, it [the new law] doesn't carry retrospective effect. But if the same act is a continuous act, namely, they started to have this kind of act advocating liberating Hong Kong etc – which has already been determined by the Hong Kong government not to comply with the law – if it continues, as of today, two days after the promulgation of the National Security Law of the Hong Kong SAR, then it matters. Because it is a continuous act."

Leung also said that the pro-democracy camp would risk violating the national security law if they used any gains in the upcoming Legco polls to help them filibuster in the council and paralyse government operations.

The SAR government issued a statement on Thursday night saying that the popular protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution Of Our Times" now carries a Hong Kong independence message, or strives to separate Hong Kong from the People's Republic of China and change the SAR's legal status.