The Legislative Council election is likely to be held as planned on December 7, despite the recent No. 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Sources indicate that several candidates have received notifications that their election campaigns could resume as early as Wednesday (Dec 3) or Thursday (Dec 4).
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu had announced last week that all election-related activities and official forums would be suspended to focus on emergency response and rescue efforts following the devastating fire disaster. He emphasized that a thorough review of the situation would take place once initial coordination efforts are concluded, in order to determine the next steps for the election.
Executive Councillor Ronny Tong Ka-wah earlier told Sing Tao Daily, the sister publication of The Standard, that legal restrictions on election dates are stringent and the extensive pre-election administrative tasks cannot be changed on a whim.
While he expressed condolences for the fire victims, he underscored the importance of proceeding with the election, stressing that facilitating the timely election of new representatives is a vital step toward improving the building maintenance policies to avert future tragedies.
The LegCo election date must be approved by the Chief Executive and Executive Council, and the Electoral Affairs Commission has the statutory authority to postpone the election by up to 14 days, but this is restricted to cases of extreme weather, riots and other threats to public health and safety.
Although the government previously invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to postpone the LegCo election for a year in 2020, such an arrangement is unlikely to be applicable this time.
