District councilors to take oaths in July with over 170 expected to be disqualified

District councilors in Hong Kong will be taking an oath of allegiance in July, with over 170 of them expected to be disqualified and unseated, according to reports.

Members of the 18 district councils – all but one of them controlled by the pro-democracy camp after a landslide victory in the 2019 election – are now subject to the loyalty pledge that is already required for senior government officials, civil servants, lawmakers and judges, after an oath-taking bill was approved by legislators in May.

It is reported that authorities are drawing up a “negative list” as a criterion for breach of oath or invalidation of oaths, which affect at least three types of district councilors.

They include those who participated in the “35+” primary election of the pan-democrats last year, those who allowed their office to be used as polling stations for the primary, and those who signed a joint statement pledging they would use the LegCo’s power to veto budget bills to compel the chief executive to respond to the 2019 protest movement’s demands.

Preliminary calculation based on the “negative list” shows that at least 170 district councilors will be disqualified, including 11 and 7 chairmen and vice-chairmen of the district council respectively.

All district councillors of the Civic Party and Neo Democrats are expected to be disqualified given the two parties have both signed the joint statement, while the Democratic Party will also lose at least 50 seats due to the councilors using their office as polling stations.

Around 30 pro-democracy district councilors have quit since the new law requiring an oath of loyalty was announced, a sign the city’s pool of pro-democracy politicians is dwindling amid what critics have decried as a Beijing-led crackdown on political dissent.

The city’s pro-democracy district councilors are seen as the last foothold for the city’s pro-democracy politicians after the democratic camp in its legislature resigned en-masse last November following the disqualification of four of their colleagues. Most are now remanded in custody over the democratic legislative primaries.