Joshua Wong, Hong Kong pro-democracy leader, barred from election

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been disqualified from running in local district council elections scheduled in November. Hong Kong Electoral Affairs Commission issued a notice on October 29 on the validity of Wong’s nomination saying his nomination has been deemed “invalid” by the Returning Officer (RO).

Wong accuses Beijing of political censorship

Wong, Secretary-General of Demosistō, a pro-democracy organisation advocating self-determination for Hong Kong, claimed that he has become the only candidate to be barred from running in the upcoming council elections. “It proved how Beijing manipulate the election with political censorship and screening,” tweeted Wong while sharing notice issued by Returning Officer Laura Aron.

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Returning Officer replaced

Earlier on October 27, Wong, in a series of tweets, said that Dorothy Ma, the then returning officer of Wong’s constituency, was suddenly replaced by Laura Aron. Wong claimed that Beijing was putting immense pressure on Ma to disqualify him. Wong said that the whole development was nothing but political censorship by Beijing.

“Returning Officer (Electoral officer) who is responsible for vetting my candidacy, in the past, was no more than checking the doc and verifying the identity. But since 2016, returning officers have often disqualified candidates,” wrote Wong.

He said that the grounds of recent disqualifications don’t uphold the basic law.

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RO wanted to know Wong's political stance

The 23-year-old pro-democracy activist said that he was asked, in a letter written by Dorothy Ma, to confirm his political stance.

“It is against my will to participate in the game of political censorship but I had replied promptly, explaining why the officer should not politically screen candidates, and explain my own political stance,” said Wong.

Wong said that after his reply, the events escalated in the “weirdest way possible”. When Wong visited Ma’s office to get updates on his candidature, he found out that she was on leave due to sickness. According to Wong, the government didn’t follow the procedure in appointing acting officer and decided to let an electoral officer in Kowloon take up the vacant role of Ma.

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