About 50 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures had been arrested by police on Wednesday beneath a nationwide safety regulation, following their involvement in an unofficial main election final 12 months held to extend their probabilities of controlling the legislature, in line with native media reviews.
Those arrested included former lawmakers and pro-democracy activists, and the group had been arrested on suspicion of subversion beneath the town’s nationwide safety regulation, in line with reviews by native newspaper South China Morning Post and on-line information platform Now News.
At least seven members of Hong Kong’s largest Democratic Party, the town’s largest opposition occasion, had been arrested, together with former occasion chairman Wu Chi-wai. Former lawmakers, together with Helena Wong, Lam Cheuk-ting, and James To, had been additionally arrested, in line with a publish on the occasion’s Facebook web page.
Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers had final July held an unofficial main election to determine which candidates they need to area in a now-postponed legislative election that might enhance their probabilities of gaining a majority of seats in legislature. Gaining a majority would enable the pro-democracy camp to vote towards what they deemed to be pro-Beijing authorities insurance policies.
More than 600,000 Hong Kongers voted within the primaries, though pro-Beijing lawmakers and politicians criticized the occasion and warned that it might be in breach of the town’s nationwide safety regulation, which was imposed on the town by Beijing in June to quash dissent following months of anti-government protests.
Beijing additionally blasted the primaries as “illegal,” calling it a “serious provocation” of Hong Kong’s present electoral system.
Following the handover of Hong Kong to China by the British in 1997, the semi-autonomous Chinese metropolis has operated on a ‘one country, two systems’ framework that affords it freedoms not discovered on the mainland. In current years, Beijing has asserted extra management over the town, drawing criticism that Hong Kong’s freedoms had been beneath assault.
The legislative elections, initially slated to be held in September, had been later postponed for a 12 months after Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam claimed that holding elections can be a danger to public well being given the coronavirus pandemic. The pro-democracy camp denounced the postponement as unconstitutional.
In November, all of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers resigned en masse after Beijing handed a decision that led to the disqualification of 4 of its camp.
