Beijing-loyal Rebecca Chan loses legislative seat in Court of Final Appeal decision
Hong Kong’s top court on Friday rejected a bid by pro-Beijing politician Rebecca Chan to hold on to her legislative seat, effectively upholding a lower court’s ruling that she was not a duly elected lawmaker.
Chan was disqualified as a Legislative Council member with immediate effect, after the Court of Final Appeal decided against granting her leave to challenge a High Court judgment in May that invalidated her 2018 by-election victory.
The political saga could be traced back to 2016, when a pro-democracy politician, Lau Siu-lai, was elected as a lawmaker of the Kowloon West geographical constituency. She was disqualified the following year when a court found she had taken her oath improperly during the legislature’s swearing-in ceremony.
Lau then made another stab at a seat in the same constituency by applying to contest the 2018 by-election but was barred from running. At that time, the returning officer screening Lau’s candidacy argued that it was invalid because she had backed calls for self-determination and was thus not genuine in upholding Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
Lau mounted a legal challenge and, in May this year, triumphed against the returning officer’s decision. Her court victory unseated Chan, who had won the 2018 by-election, prompting the latter to file an appeal in June.
It was understood that Chan had spent a total of HK$1.46 million (US$188,640) to fund her by-election drive.
Before announcing her intention to run for the election, Chan became the new public face of a pro-Beijing group, Kowloon Federation of Associations. As the federation’s “health ambassador,” she featured prominently in a promotional campaign that hung a 25-meter giant billboard outside the city’s busiest cross-harbor tunnel, in Hung Hom, Kowloon, showing Chan in a tracksuit and poised in a running position. Advertising posters of her were also seen on minibuses running around the city.
The campaign cost around HK$1 million and was funded by the federation. Chan did not include the expenses incurred in her subsequent submission to authorities about the expenditure spent on her by-election hustings.
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