Postponement of the 2020 Hong Kong legislative election

For new date of the election, see 2021 Hong Kong legislative election.

The 2020 Hong Kong legislative election was originally scheduled on 6 September 2020 until it was postponed by the government for a whole year to 5 September 2021. On 31 July 2020, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced she would invoke the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to postpone the election, citing the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 cases.

The delay was seen as a blow to the pro-democrats who aimed to achieve "35+" majority by riding to 2019 District Council landslide on a wave of massive protests against the government and concerns about the sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong. It was also seen as the latest in a quick series of aggressive moves by the Beijing authorities to thwart their momentum and sideline the pro-democracy movement. Prior to the announcement, 12 opposition candidates were disqualified from running in the election and four ex-members of pro-independence student group Studentlocalism aged 16 to 21 were arrested for several pro-independence social media posts under the new security law.

Political situation before the postponement

Anti-extradition protests and District Council landslide

Main articles: 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and 2019 Hong Kong local elections

In mid 2019, the Carrie Lam administration push for an amendment of the extradition law created an unprecedented political crisis in Hong Kong. More than a million people marched against the bill in mid June and resulted in violent clashes between the police and the protesters outside the Central Government Complex on 12 June.

The protests dragged on and escalated as Carrie Lam refused to fully withdraw the bill, resulting in huge anti-government sentiment that projected on the November District Council election, where the pro-Beijing parties suffered historic defeat, costing them about two third of the seats. The pro-democrats jumped from around 124 to about 388 seats and took control of 17 of the 18 District Councils as a result.

The stunning results greatly boosted the morale of the pro-democrats who turned their eyes on a majority of the Legislative Council in 2020 election. Benny Tai, initiator of the 2014 Occupy protests, suggested the chance of the pro-democrats winning more than half of the seats to block the government's bills including the expected legislation of the Article 23 of the Basic Law and pressured the government to implement the five key demands of the protest movement, initiating a primary within the pro-democracy camp. He also initiated "ThunderGo plan 2.0", which mirrored his coordinating mechanism of "smart voters" in the 2016 election to strategic voting to increase the chance of the pro-democracy candidates.

National security legislation

Main article: Hong Kong national security law

In early 2020, the central government suddenly shuffled the personnels and organisations of its representative organs in Hong Kong by replacing the China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong director Wang Zhimin with former Communist Party secretary in Shanxi Luo Huining and Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Zhang Xiaoming with former Communist Party secretary in Zhejiang Xia Baolong, with Luo becoming his deputy. Political analysts speculated that one of the key tasks for Luo and Xia was to make sure that the pro-Beijing camp would continue to hold the majority in the legislature in the coming election.

The two Beijing's agencies in Hong Kong had been unusually outspoken, going on offensive by urging the Hong Kong government for implement new national security law to safeguard national security. In May 2020, the Beijing authorities initiated a plan for implementing the national security law for Hong Kong which would prominently criminalise "separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference", which many interpreted as a crackdown on civil liberties, government critics, and the independence movement. Pro-democracy camp and various national governments expressed concern that the Chinese plans would undermine Hong Kong autonomy and the "One Country, Two Systems" principle. Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung said the details of the legislation show "Beijing's power is stabbing right into Hong Kong's judicial and administrative organs like a sword." He warned that "Hong Kong’s worst nightmare has been mapped out" and added that the lack of details on specific criminal actions was "extremely worrying." The NPC approved the Chinese plans on 29 May 2020 and the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) subsequently convened for drafting the details of the law.

In June, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang suggested that anyone who opposed the coming national security law would be disqualified from September's Legislative Council elections. He stressed that it is everyone's duty to safeguard national security, and the imposition of security laws "is only natural". Alvin Yeung described Tsang's comments as a form of "illogical and irresponsible intimidation" to the potential opposition candidates. On 30 June, the NPCSC unanimously passed the national security law without fully disclosing the content of the law. Hours after the news, leading members of the Demosistō Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, Agnes Chow and Jeffrey Ngo announced their departure from the party. The party subsequently announced it would disband on the same day, saying that the resignation of several key members in light of the national security law made it difficult for them to continue their operations. Former Demosistō chairman Nathan Law decided to flee Hong Kong and dropped out from the pro-democracy primaries in response to the security law.

On 29 July, four former members of pro-independence student group Studentlocalism aged 16 to 21, including 19-year-old Tony Chung, were arrested cover the content of their social media accounts. The posts suggested they would use all means to establish a republic of Hong Kong and unite all pro-independence political groups. Senior superintendent of the new national security department of the police force Steve Li cited Article 21 of the security law as stating that making statements that promote secession would constitute incitement, and it is not necessary to assess if someone was actually motivated by such content.

On 31 July hours after the announcement on delaying the election, Chinese state media reported that Hong Kong police had ordered the arrest of six pro-democracy activists living in exile on suspicion of violating the national security law, including Nathan Law, former British consulate staffer Simon Cheng, pro-independence activists Ray Wong, Wayne Chan, Honcques Laus, and Samuel Chu. The report said the six were sought for "incitement to secession and collusion with foreign forces".

Pro-democracy primaries and disqualifications

Main articles: 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries and 2020 Hong Kong LegCo candidates' disqualification controversy

Organised by Benny Tai and former legislator Au Nok-hin and conducted by Power for Democracy, the pro-democracy primaries were held on 11 and 12 July. A total number of 52 people candidates from all over the spectrum in the pro-democracy movement participated in the primaries. Over 590,000 electronic ballots and more than 20,000 paper ballots were recorded throughout the two-day vote, more than 13 per cent of the total number of registered voters and far exceeding the organisers' expected turnout of 170,000 despite the security law and legal threats.

Traditional pro-democrat parties lost grounds to the localist new faces, with many veteran democrats performed much worse than expectation. Democratic Party incumbent Helena Wong only came seventh in her Kowloon West constituency and former legislator "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats managed only ninth place in New Territories East for which only the top seven candidates would run in the general election. Incumbent legislator Joseph Lee of the Health Services constituency also lost to Winnie Yu of the labour union Hospital Authority Employees Alliance. With many new coming localists emerged on top, an unofficial six-person alliance led by former Demosistō secretary-general Joshua Wong, incumbent legislator Eddie Chu, incumbent District Councillor Lester Shum, former reporter Gwyneth Ho, student activist Sunny Cheung and incumbent District Councillor Tiffany Yuen endorsed by withdrawn candidate Nathan Law, became the biggest winner with all of them coming either top or second in their respective constituencies.

On 30 July one day before the end of the nomination period and the government announcement of delaying the election, 12 opposition candidates' nomination were invalidated by the returning officers, including four incumbent Legislative Council members Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung and activists Joshua Wong and Ventus Lau. Incumbent District Councillors Cheng Tat-hung, Fergus Leung, Tiffany Yuen and Lester Shum were also barred from running, as well as former reporter Gwyneth Ho and Civic Passion's Cheng Kam-mun which sparked a political storm and a round of international condemnation.

COVID-19 pandemic and resurgence

Main article: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

The months-long anti-government protests and the alleged initial mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak cost Carrie Lam's substantial public support. A Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute survey in late January found 75 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the government's response to the outbreak, while Lam's support rating sunk to nine per cent in late February, the lowest on record for any leader. In February 2020, a confidential report by Carrie Lam to the central government revealed that Lam's attempt to win back the public trust and support by effectively handling the coronavirus outbreak in which she believed would serve as a political turnaround for the coming election.

On 5 May, two former Chief Executives Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying launched a pro-Beijing alliance Hong Kong Coalition. The alliance was co-sponsored by 1,545 representatives of various sectors including senior politicians, former government officials, university heads and tycoons. It said it aimed to "get Hong Kong start again" by boosting the declining economy and uniting the divided society. It also announced to give away 10 million face masks across all 18 districts of Hong Kong. Political scientist Ivan Choy believed the alliance was set up as a part of the electioneering of the pro-Beijing camp in the coming election and to support Beijing's Hong Kong policy.

In mid July amid another spike of new confirmed coronavirus cases in the city, Tam Yiu-chung, the sole representative from Hong Kong on NPCSC, suggested that the government should not rule out postponing the upcoming election. Echoed by other pro-Beijing politicians, Tam said elderly people would not go to vote out of fear of being infected. He also noted said many elderly people had migrated to live in the Greater Bay Area and would prefer not to return to Hong Kong to vote, given that the city implemented a 14-day quarantine requirement for incoming travellers, denying any criticism that the pro-Beijing camp was afraid of losing the election. Tanya Chan, Civic Party legislator and convenor of the pro-democracy camp in the legislature, said the pro-Beijing camp was urging the postponement of the LegCo election as they knew they would lose. She noted that many places, including Queensland in Australia, South Korea and Singapore, had run their elections amid the pandemic earlier this year.

Postponement

On 31 July 2020, the last day of the nomination period in the electoral process, Carrie Lam announced the invocation of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to postpone the election for a whole year, citing the resurgence of the COVID-19 cases.

"The decision to postpone the 2020 LegCo election has nothing to do with politics, has nothing to do with the likely outcome of this round of election," Lam said. "It is purely on the basis of protecting the health and safety of the Hong Kong people." She said that with 4.4 million registered voters in Hong Kong, the elections would involve "a large-scale gathering and an immense infection risk", particularly to elders while social distancing measures would prevent candidates from canvassing, adding that many registered voters in mainland China and oversea would be unable to take part in the elections while border quarantine measures were in place. Lam emphasised that all elections should be conducted fairly, openly and honestly.

Under current law, the Chief Executive can delay an election up to 14 days if there is a he or she believes it is likely to be "obstructed, disrupted, undermined or seriously affected by riot or open violence or any danger to public health and safety." However Lam postponed the election until 5 September 2021 under Emergency Regulations Ordinance that give the Chief Executive emergency powers to make any regulations considered to be "desirable in the public interest", claiming the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak makes the 14-days delay not practicable. As Article 69 of the Basic Law stipulates that the term of the LegCo shall be four years which meant the term of the 6th Legislative Council must end on 30 September 2020, the postponement created a lacuna in the Legislative Council between 30 September 2020 and the next election. For that, Lam said she had submitted an urgent report to the central government seeking its support and guidance. With respect to how to deal with the lacuna of the Legislative Council arising from the postponement, the Central People's Government will make a submission in accordance with the law to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for its decision.

The Chief Executive in Council invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to make the Emergency (Date of General Election) (Seventh Term of the Legislative Council) Regulation which was promulgated on 1 August, officially suspended the electoral process.

Response

Domestic

The pro-democrats who hoped to ride on a wave of deep-seated dissatisfaction with the government accused the government of using the pandemic as a pretext to stop people from voting. Legislator Tanya Chan said she suspected pro-government politicians were more concerned about "their own election prospects" rather than "the severity of the pandemic". Joshua Wong wrote on Twitter that the pandemic was being used as "as an excuse to postpone the election" and was "the largest election fraud in #HK's history." Pro-democracy legislator Eddie Chu said that Chinese Communist Party was ordering "a strategic retreat." They "want to avoid a potential devastating defeat" in the election, he wrote on Twitter.

International

Germany announced it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong over the delay of the election and disqualification of the opposition candidates. "The Hong Kong government's decision to disqualify a dozen opposition candidates for the election and to postpone the elections ... is a further encroachment on the rights of Hong Kong citizens," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. "Given the current developments, we have decided to suspend the extradition treaty with Hong Kong."