Hong Kong elections: vetting committee will weed out candidates ‘faking’ their loyalty pledges, John Lee says
- Elections hopefuls making bogus pledges will have their applications rejected, vetting committee chairman says
- Supporting independence, using ‘illegal means’ to force policy change will trigger loyalty test failure under committee criteria
The head of a powerful vetting committee tasked with ensuring Hong Kong election candidates pose no threat to national security has vowed to weed out those “faking” allegiance to the city.
Lee said the committee would decide whether those seeking office met its criteria for properly embracing the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and pledging loyalty to the city.
“We will reject those ‘faking to embrace’ or ‘faking to pledge allegiance’ from the doors of the governance structure,” the city’s No 2 official wrote on his blog on Saturday.
The committee is tasked with reviewing and signing off candidates looking to run in the polls for the chief executive, the Legislative Council and the Election Committee.
The latter body’s role has expanded, beyond only selecting the city’s leader, to nominating hopefuls for the legislature and fielding representatives of their own.
The vetting committee was established as part of the Beijing-decreed overhaul of Hong Kong elections approved in March to screen out candidates deemed “unpatriotic” or who threatened national security.
