Hong Kong’s Democratic Party plans to mount comeback bid in next year’s district council election
- Party will ‘try to make the best use of the room allowed to reflect the views of Hong Kong people’, chairman says
- Candidates will only run if seats are directly elected and current system is not changed, he adds
Hong Kong’s biggest opposition party may mount a comeback bid in next year’s election for the district councils, its former stronghold before nearly all of the members who helped manage neighbourhood affairs quit when Beijing required they pledge an oath of allegiance.
Democratic Party chairman Lo Kin-hei on Wednesday said members would “go ahead” with campaigning provided the government did not change the current system under which all seats were directly elected.
“The council has always been an elected body that reflected public views, with its elected members directly accountable to the people,” Lo said. “If the system remains unchanged, we shall go ahead … Our stance is that we shall try to make the best use of the room allowed to reflect the views of Hong Kong people for the benefit of the whole Hong Kong society.”
City leader John Lee Ka-chiu, who took over in July, has said the government will review the past “failures” of the 18 district councils and propose reforms before next year’s poll, with the aim of making them “efficient” organisations.
The government has raised the prospect of appointing members to the seats, a practice that was phased out nearly a decade ago in favour of choosing district councillors by popular vote.
The Democratic Party has seen its influence shrink in recent years, along with the opposition camp. Riding on the momentum of the anti-government protests in 2019, the camp won control of 17 district councils that year. But in 2020, the party’s lawmakers joined fellow pan-democrats in a mass resignation from the Legislative Council, quitting in protest after China’s top legislative body empowered the local government to unseat politicians without having to go through the city’s courts.
In 2021, nearly all of the party’s district council members either resigned or were disqualified after being required to take a new oath of office. A number of its members have also been charged and remanded in custody in connection with national security cases.
