The standing committee of the nation's top legislature decided today to allow Hong Kong's entire Legislative Council (Legco) to stay on for a year, now that the election has been postponed until next September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the decision by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), four opposition Legco members will be able to retain their seats even though they were barred from running in the now-postponed polls for the next legislative term.The NPCSC announced that all incumbent lawmakers will continue to perform their duties for "no less than one year" after the current Legco term ends on September 30.
The next Legco election is now slated for September 2021.
Hong Kong’s sole representative on the NPCSC, Tam Yiu-chung, said that means that the Hong Kong government will not have to ask for another decision from the nation's top legislature even if that vote is again affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NPCSC decision also states that the next Legco term – its seventh -- will last for four full years.
The one-year extension of the current Legco term fills a vacuum until next year's elections, which could have led to constitutional and legal problems for the government.
Opposition lawmakers Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung Kai-cheung were barred from running in September 6 Legco election, on grounds that they did not comply with Hong Kong's new national security law. That had sparked debate about their immediate future.
Even key members of the pro-establishment camp aired different views, with some saying they should not be allowed to retain their status while others said it would be a “disproportionate” decision to kick them out of the council.
But the NPCSC, which wrapped up its four-day session in Beijing, decided to allow for the status quo to remain.
Tam, a former Legco member, said that yesterday's decision did not have a bearing on the functions of Legco. He said the Hong Kong government was free to make arrangements on the council's operations.
He also rejected suggestions that the decision could pave the way for the current Legco term to last beyond next year and for elections for put off indefinitely, saying it dealt only with the vacuum created by the one-year election delay.
- RTHK, MPD
