Poll Ban On Joshua Wong Is 'political Retaliation'

Pan-democrats warned on Tuesday that the ban on Demosisto activist Joshua Wong from running in the District Council elections will fan the flames of the ongoing anti-government protests, while an academic said this was a clear case of political retaliation by the Hong Kong and Central governments.

Without naming Wong, the government had said in a statement that it backs the returning officer’s decision to bar Wong from running in the November polls, saying his backing of self-determination for Hong Kong means he cannot abide by the Basic Law.

“There is no question of any political censorship, restriction of the freedom of speech or deprivation of the right to stand for elections as alleged by some members of the community”, a spokesman said.

However, an associate professor in political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, Kenneth Chan, said the decision was clearly a politically driven one against Hong Kong and Beijing’s “number one enemy".

“Obviously his disqualification has a lot to do with his profile, his activism, and I believe that this time around it’s clearly inspired by Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities to seek retaliation so that he would be kept outside the electoral systems, and kept outside the establishment of Hong Kong altogether”, Chan concluded.

Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai warned that not only will this “political screening” lead to more street protests, “we have to beware that that may be a situation that laid down the foundation for the government to call off the District Council election in the coming time".

Wu added that Wong had clearly stated in his responses to queries from the returning officer that he does not support Hong Kong independence

Civic Party lawmaker Alvin Yeung agreed that Wong’s stance was unequivocal, and questioned if the election official had ‘mind-reading powers’ in arriving to her conclusions over his political stance.

He accused the government of being tone-deaf to the wishes of its people.

“This is a blatant demonstration that the government really doesn’t care about what Hong Kong people want… The Hong Kong government is basically telling the rest of the world that we don’t care about what you think of us”, Yeung said.