Beijing urges Hongkongers to stay vigilant against bids to harm Legco election
No mercy will be shown in cracking down on any acts seeking to interfere with or disrupt the elections, Beijing’s national security office says
Beijing has called for vigilance against any attempts to jeopardise Hong Kong’s coming Legislative Council election, warning that local law enforcement agencies will not “sit back and do nothing” in the face of such efforts.
The central government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and its national security arm in the city vowed to crack down on any disruptions to the election in separate warnings on Friday.
The comments coincided with the start of the two-week nomination period for the December 7 poll, with two of the city’s largest political groups starting their promotional efforts and their leaders saying they were ready for the electoral challenge.
The Registration and Electoral Office said it had received 23 nomination forms for the poll – 15 from geographical constituencies, four from functional constituencies and four from the Election Committee constituency.
A strongly worded commentary under the pen name “Gang Ao Ping” shared by the office urged the public to remain vigilant against any attempts by anti-China forces to disrupt the election, even though implementation of the national security law in 2020 in the wake of the previous year’s social unrest and Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul in 2021 had curbed such activities and maintained order.
“The recent outlandish theories, such as the fabricated claims of ‘Beijing is interfering in the election’, the circulation of a so-called ‘blessing list’, the smears against the performance of seventh-term lawmakers and vows to boycott the race, are similar to previous tactics,” it said.