The election mails of a district council candidate were rejected by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) because they included phrases such as “Nation Building for Hong Kong City-State”, “Neighbouring economic heavyweight” and “Promote Hong Kong’s sovereignty to foreigners”.
The REO told candidate Nakade Hitsujiko in a letter that more than 40 phrases in the mails were against the Basic Law, in particular Article 1 of the Basic Law which states that “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China.”
Nakade said in one of the disallowed phrases: ‘Hong Kong was established 107 years earlier than China, it is unrelated to China, Hong Kong was forced to merge with China without a referendum, it was illegally occupied after 1997.”
The phrases were also against a disclaimer made by Nakade in order to be able to run in the election, that he upholds the Basic Law and pledges loyalty to the HKSAR, the REO added. If he did not remove the phrases from the mails, the REO would not accept the mails.
According to election laws, candidates can post one letter to each elector of the constituency free of postage, before November 9.
Nakade said on his Facebook account that he was “shocked” by the decision.
He has decided to send the censored version to his electors, covering the disallowed phrases with black markers, and wrote “this content is not politically correct, it was censored” in simplified Chinese characters in white, on the blackened phrases.
But Nakade has also uploaded the uncensored version of his election mails to the internet.
Mr Nakade is a follower of Wan Chin, an assistant professor at the Department of Chinese of Lingnan University. Chin authored the book “Hong Kong as a City-State.”
Previously, Nakade suggested “Build Hong Kong City-State” as one of his campaign slogans, but the REO deemed it was against the Basic Law and it would not be allowed.
The slogan on his official election platform was then removed by the REO.
Last week, Nakade suggested that “sexy local lady” dancing should be introduced in Mong Kok, to replace the “Chinese singing aunties” around the Sai Yeung Choi Street South pedestrian zone.
Nakade Hitsujiko is an independent candidate running in the Cherry constituency in Tai Kok Tsui.
The Democratic Party’s Lam Ho-yeung and independent candidate Chung Chak-fai are also running in the Cherry constituency.
