Oct 21, 2023·edited Oct 21, 2023Liked by James Ockenden
I am a registered HK voter. So much for article 26 of the Basic Law which is supposed to guarantee the right to vote and the right to stand for election for permanent residents. This right was more or less upheld before this “patriot only” farce where unelected loyal garbage are the nominators instead of registered voters and there is no way to contact them! 🤬
yeah sadly Article 26 says we have the right to stand for election "in accordance with the law". The new District Council law (rushed through with barely any consultation and no debate before being rubber stamped by a LegCo composed largely of Election Committee members) says this scheme is 100% fine.
Where they did break Basic Law, IMHO, is in not holding any by-elections for the vacant seats in the last four years. But I don't see anyone testing that.
Oct 21, 2023·edited Oct 21, 2023Liked by James Ockenden
“In accordance with the law” doesn’t mean a local ordinance, that is supposedly subordinate to the Basic Law, can exclude basically every permanent resident from standing for all HK elections except for select candidates with establishment backgrounds and still be constitutional with the Basic Law.
Any restriction by law must be reasonable to comply with BL.
I have no delusions that anyone can actually challenge this in a JR in the “new” Hong Kong but that doesn’t change how this looks like black being turned into white.
Article 25 of the ICCPR says that citizens should have the right to stand for election without unreasonable restrictions and ICCPR is supposed to be binding to HK according to article 39 of basic law.
Update on latest candidate nominations in Kowloon City. We have 16 candidates nominated:
* 94% of them (15 out of 16) are on the nomination committee themselves
* 69% male
* Only 56% choose to list an occupation
* NONE declare themselves as "independent/no affiliation"... but only 50% choose to list their political affiliation (two-thirds of them are DAB).
bravo, they build a very effective human firewall
I am a registered HK voter. So much for article 26 of the Basic Law which is supposed to guarantee the right to vote and the right to stand for election for permanent residents. This right was more or less upheld before this “patriot only” farce where unelected loyal garbage are the nominators instead of registered voters and there is no way to contact them! 🤬
yeah sadly Article 26 says we have the right to stand for election "in accordance with the law". The new District Council law (rushed through with barely any consultation and no debate before being rubber stamped by a LegCo composed largely of Election Committee members) says this scheme is 100% fine.
Where they did break Basic Law, IMHO, is in not holding any by-elections for the vacant seats in the last four years. But I don't see anyone testing that.
“In accordance with the law” doesn’t mean a local ordinance, that is supposedly subordinate to the Basic Law, can exclude basically every permanent resident from standing for all HK elections except for select candidates with establishment backgrounds and still be constitutional with the Basic Law.
Any restriction by law must be reasonable to comply with BL.
I have no delusions that anyone can actually challenge this in a JR in the “new” Hong Kong but that doesn’t change how this looks like black being turned into white.
Article 25 of the ICCPR says that citizens should have the right to stand for election without unreasonable restrictions and ICCPR is supposed to be binding to HK according to article 39 of basic law.