More district councillors – inc. one facing security law charge – swear loyalty to Hong Kong gov’t, while one refuses

District councillors from Kowloon have sworn an oath of allegiance to the Hong Kong government under a new rule to ensure that only “patriots” hold office, with just one councillor refusing to do so.

The ceremony for 55 councillors took place at the North Point Community Hall on Friday morning, just as the government officially gazetted the disqualification of eight district councillors from Hong Kong Island. The oaths taken by seven of them two weeks ago were deemed invalid, while one had refused to swear.

In a press release on Friday night, the government said it had requested more information from 10 district councillors owing to “doubts on the validity” of their oaths. All councillors from Hong Kong Island who were previously requested to provide more information were disqualified days later.

The new rule was introduced after pro-democracy councillors won a sweeping victory in the district council elections in November 2019.

When the time came for the Kowloon councillors to swear allegiance, Sham Shui Po District Councillor Lee Man-ho announced he would not take part.

“Election results were supposed to be confirmed since the 2019 District Council election ended, but not only did the tyrannical SAR government not review its own mistakes, it instead created new oppressive laws and added rules to rewrite the results of an election,” he wrote on social media on Thursday.

“I refuse to endlessly cooperate with the government, as there was no such rule on oaths when I entered the election.”

Among those who took their oaths were veteran democrats including former lawmaker James To and Ramon Yuen, but some were likely to be disqualified later. Officials consider past actions and speeches to assess whether oaths were deemed to have been sincerely taken.

After the end of the ceremony Lawrence Lau told reporters he meant his oath sincerely and considered it an obligation for public office, HK01 reported. Yuen said he decided to take the oath “because serving residents in my neighbourhood is always my priority,” and hoped to complete his term.

Barrister Lau has been charged under the national security law along with 46 other democrats over an opposition primary in July 2020 and is on bail awaiting trial.

Also taking the oath on Friday were social worker and former Civic Party member Ken Tsang and Democratic Party member Edith Leung.

Eight disqualified

The chairperson of the largest pro-Beijing party the DAB and Kowloon City District Councillor Starry Lee said she believed the government would “act in accordance with the law” and would consider councillors’ past speech and deeds.

Twenty-four district councillors from Hong Kong Island took their oaths two weeks ago, but the government asked for supplementary information from seven of them, saying it doubted their oaths were genuine. They were later disqualified.

The pro-democracy camp won 388 out of 479 district council seats in the November 2019 election in the wake of months of sometimes violent protests against an extradition bill – a major blow to the pro-Beijing camp.

But over 260 of them have since resigned, after pro-government media reported that the authorities may reclaim pay and allowances from them if their oaths of allegiance are deemed to be invalid.

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