The organizer of the annual pro-democracy march on July 1 — the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule — has said the police will in all likelihood ban the upcoming demonstration.

The Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized the annual march since 2003, met with the police for the first time on Tuesday to discuss plans for this year’s event, despite having applied for the event in March.

Jimmy Sham, convenor of the CHRF, said police representatives were unwilling to listen to any of the suggestions that would ensure the event could go ahead safely and peacefully. He also accused the police of using the pandemic to suppress the public’s freedom of assembly, referring to the social-distancing rules that are set to end on July 2, a day after the march.

“They clearly do not want a massive march and won’t allow us to come out to protest,” Sham said, adding that he was “100%” certain the assembly would be banned. He said that the CHRF would file an appeal if the application for the event is rejected and said the organization would announce further actions if the appeal fails as well.

Sham said the CHRF proposed seven measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among marchers, including rules for crowd control, staggering starting times, spreading out the kickoff locations and opening up multiple lanes so participants can still maintain their social distance.

Sham said the police did not give a response as to whether they would accept the suggestions and also refused to give public health guidelines for the CHRF to follow.

Sham said the march was proposed to end outside the Legislative Council Complex but added that the police did not give any response to this proposal during the meeting. Sham said he hoped a second meeting could be arranged.

Sham added that it would be unreasonable for the police to ban the march since bars, karaoke lounges and even amusement parks such as Ocean Park Hong Kong Disneyland have reopened.

In response, the police force said it respected the public’s right to peacefully express their opinions, adding that it would conduct an independent risk analysis for every public-events application.

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