Disqualified Hong Kong lawmaker Lau Siu-lai to drop legal challenge and focus on reclaiming lost seat

Lau said to be considering Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan as backup candidate, fearing she may be prevented from running again for Legislative Council seat

Reading Time:3 minutes

Lau Siu-lai spent eight minutes delivering her Legco oath, pausing for five to seven seconds between every Chinese word. She was unseated in July last year in a High Court ruling. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:36am, 22 May 2018Updated: 7:56pm, 22 May 2018

Ousted lawmaker Lau Siu-lai is to drop a legal challenge against her disqualification from Hong Kong’s legislature and focus on regaining her seat, two sources close to her have said.

But with a risk of Lau being barred from running again, veteran pan-democrat and ex-lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan will be asked to serve as her backup candidate, the Post has learned.

Lau was one of six lawmakers removed from the Legislative Council for improperly taking their oaths in October 2016. The decision to end her legal fight would trigger another by-election in Kowloon West, the site of a symbolic loss for the democratic camp in March when another of the six, Edward Yiu Chung-yim, was defeated by the pro-establishment camp’s Vincent Cheng Wing-shun.

The electoral office would not confirm whether the latest by-election would be held before the end of the year.

The four disqualified lawmakers (from left to right): Edward Yiu, Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung and Lau Siu-lai. Photo: Edward Wong

Lau spent eight minutes delivering her Legco oath, pausing for five to seven seconds between every Chinese word. She was unseated in July last year in a High Court ruling, alongside three other democratic lawmakers, Yiu, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.