Pro-Beijing Stalwarts Split On Status Of Lawmakers

Two pro-Beijing heavyweights on Monday offered opposing views on whether four incumbent lawmakers disqualified from running in the now-postponed Legco election should be allowed to keep their seats if Beijing decides to extend the term of the current council.

While former Legco president Tsang Yok-sing said it would be disproportionate if they are stripped of their seats now, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), Tam Yiu-chung, reiterated his stance that it would be contradictory to allow the four to keep their status as lawmakers.

The NPCSC will make a decision on how to deal with the vacuum created by the one-year postponement of the Legco poll announced on Friday.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Tsang said he expects the NPCSC to just lay down a set of basic principles, without indicating exactly who can continue to serve as lawmakers. That, he said, may be decided by the courts in Hong Kong later.

But Tam, talking to Commercial Radio, differed on this point. He said the NPCSC may not necessarily agree with the Hong Kong government that the current Legco can simply be extended by a year, and may deal with the qualifications of councillors also.

He said it is contradictory to allow four lawmakers to keep their status if they were barred by election officials from standing in the September election.

Pro-democracy legislator Chu Hoi-dick, meanwhile, dismissed this split between the two stalwarts, saying the pro-Beijing camp is playing the "good cop, bad cop" strategy.

He said the pan-democrats are faced with the dilemma of boycotting Legco meetings or staying in the chamber to fight what he called "evil laws".

Talking to the Millennium programme, Tsang said he backed the government's decision to delay the polls for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the pro-establishment camp won't necessarily benefit from it.

The pro-Beijing heavyweight also said the government should put aside a controversial suggestion to allow Hongkongers to vote in the Greater Bay Area for now and focus on holding the polls next year as promised.

He said the officials should look at overseas examples and make the needed preparations such as increasing the number of polling stations and extending the voting time, so the vote can still go ahead even if the pandemic situation remains the same.

"Now this is what the government must do; let us change the law, and let us put in place those measures we have seen in other countries that can effectively allow elections to go on, without any danger, without exposing the voters to any risk," the former Legco chief said.