Election candidate vetting completed

August 26, 2021

Chief Secretary John Lee:

In regard to Cheng Chung-tai, I have explained earlier that we have written to him to ask him to provide further information and explanation for some specified matters.

After considering his reply, the (Candidate Eligibility Review) Committee looked at his case holistically and came to a decision that we need to seek an opinion of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The national security committee then gave us an opinion to indicate that he has not complied with the requirement of upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR.

On that basis, we have come to the determination that Cheng Chung-tai has not fulfilled the legal requirement of upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR and we have already sent notification to him.

As regards the losing of his Legislative Council seat, this is in accordance with a decision by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee made earlier on November 11, 2020, and also in accordance with the LegCo Ordinance. We will be publishing a gazette (notice) to that effect.

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Candidate Eligibility Review Committee (CERC) has determined that lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai’s proposed registration for Election Committee (EC) ex-officio member is invalid and he was disqualified from being a Legislative Council member.

Announcing the CERC’s decision today, Chief Secretary John Lee said that Mr Cheng failed to meet the legal requirements and conditions for being an ex-officio member.

Mr Lee explained that in reviewing his registration, the CERC asked him to provide information on specific issues.

After considering his reply, the CERC looked at his case holistically and came to a decision that they need to seek an opinion of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

“The national security committee then gave us an opinion to indicate that he has not complied with the requirement of upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR.

“On that basis, we have come to the determination that Cheng Chung-tai has not fulfilled the legal requirement of upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR and we have already sent notification to him.

“As regards the losing of his Legislative Council seat, this is in accordance with a decision by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee made earlier on November 11, 2020, and also in accordance with the LegCo Ordinance.”

Meanwhile, one candidate is not eligible to be nominated for the EC subsectors election as he has not yet registered as an elector for a geographical consistency, Mr Lee added.

The CERC published a notice in the gazette today to declare the lists of 310 EC ex-officio members who were determined to be validly registered, 156 valid nominations for members of the EC and 1,015 validly nominated candidates for EC subsectors.

Polls for 13 contested subsectors involving 412 candidates will be held on September 19 for 364 seats.