Nominations accepted for elections to LegCo in HK

China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Saturday began the two-week nomination period for the city’s Legislative Council elections in September.

On the first day of the nomination process, which runs until July 31, a total of 18 nomination forms were received by returning officers for the five geographical constituencies and the 29 functional constituencies.

The number of nomination forms received for geographical constituencies and functional constituencies were eight and 10 respectively.

The LegCo General Election will be held on September 6. A total of 70 members, 35 from geographical constituencies and 35 from functional constituencies, will be returned.

A number of candidates from political groups, including the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, and the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong, have registered to stand for the election.

This is the first nomination since a national security law was enacted at the beginning of the month.

The Electoral Affairs Commission reminded all candidates about the rules about the nomination and stressed the necessity of fully understanding and upholding the Basic Law.

“Any candidates who wish to run for the election must, in accordance with Section 40(1)(b)(i) of the Legislative Council Ordinance, sign a declaration in the nomination form to the effect that the person will uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Otherwise, he or she is not a validly nominated candidate,” a spokesman for the EAC told reporters.

Media reports say that Junius Ho, a local lawmaker and politician, announced on Friday that he will take part in the election. He was quoted as saying that many citizens approve of his work at the LegCo and he will continue to make efforts in various areas such as strengthening education about China’s Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR.

Ho has been urging protesters to stop illegal and violent acts since unrest broke out in June last year, which made him a target of attack by radical forces and suffer a life threatening injury.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council said on Tuesday that it will never allow any illegal manipulation in the LegCo election and condemned the so-called “primaries” organized by the opposition camp in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the HKSAR government said it will investigate illegal acts in the “primaries” as a large number of complaints on the activity has been filed with the government.

The Registration and Electoral Office will set up more than 610 ordinary polling stations for the election. About 31,000 electoral staff will be recruited and trained for carrying out polling and counting duties on polling day.