Hong Kong’s “patriots only” Legislative Council (LegCo) election will go ahead this Sunday as scheduled, despite the fatal fire in Tai Po, the city’s leader has announced.
Holding the election as planned will help stabilise the community in the aftermath of the Wang Fuk Court fire and will assist the government in its relief work to rebuild the community, Chief Executive John Lee said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Much of the government’s relief work will require the legislature’s approval, and going ahead with the polls represents a “responsible attitude” that Hong Kong should adopt, he said.
“Conducting the election as planned is a respect to the spirit of the rule of law,” he said.
Hong Kong’s election laws permit polls to be postponed for no more than 14 days, beyond which emergency legislation would need to be invoked.
Local media reported on Sunday that some election candidates had been notified that election forums would proceed as planned.
Promotional activities for the upcoming LegCo polls were paused last week after the blaze in Wang Fuk Court engulfed seven of eight blocks of the residential estate. As of Monday, 151 people had died in the tragedy, while 79 were injured.
Police are still searching for more than 30 missing residents.
Lee announced on Thursday that the city had paused all promotional activities for the upcoming Legislative Council elections, including candidate forums.
At the time, election activities for the December 7 polls were in full swing, with daily election forums and government departments holding events to promote voting after record-low turnouts since Beijing overhauled the electoral system in 2021 to ensure only patriots could run for office.
Eight forums were scheduled to take place from Thursday to Sunday last week.
