Apex court upholds decision to unseat Chan Hoi-yan

The Court of Final Appeal today upheld the decision that pro-government lawmaker Chan Hoi-yan was not duly elected to the legislature.

Chan is officially no longer a legislator, after the top court today refused to allow a challenge to her disqualification, following her opposition rival Lau Siu-lai’s successful election petition.

The High Court earlier ruled that there was a “clear material irregularity” in the West Kowloon Legco by-election held in November 2018, in which Chan won.

The court noted that the election officials did not give Lau proper opportunities to respond to allegations against her over her previous position of advocating self-determination for Hong Kong, despite claiming that she had ditched that stance ahead of the polls.

Speaking outside the court, Lau welcomed the ruling but stressed it was not enough.

“The rights of Hong Kong people when standing for election are still not being upheld, and we still could not stop election officials from asking questions about the stances of candidates and disqualifying them from running,” Lau added.