2021 Hong Kong legislative election

Originally scheduled on 6 September 2020, the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 cases in July sparked the speculation of the possible delay of the election. Tam Yiu-chung, the sole representative from Hong Kong on National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), suggested that the government should not rule out postponing the upcoming election, denying any criticism that the pro-Beijing camp was afraid of losing the election.[4][5]

On 31 July the last day of the nomination period, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the invocation of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance which gave her to the emergency powers to postpone the election. She said the elections would involve "a large-scale gathering and an immense infection risk", adding that many registered voters in mainland China and oversea would be unable to take part in the elections while border quarantine measures were in place and denied any political calculation behind it.[2][6] On 11 August the NPCSC unanimously passed a decision to extend the incumbent 6th Legislative Council to extend its term for no less than one year.[7][8]

The delay was seen as a blow to the pro-democrats who aimed to achieve "35+" majority by riding to 2019 District Council landslide on a wave of massive anti-government protests and concerns about the sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong. It was also seen as the latest in a quick series of aggressive moves by the Beijing authorities to thwart their momentum and sideline the pro-democracy movement.[3] The pro-democrats accused Lam of using the pandemic as a pretext to stop people from voting and warned that doing so would "trigger a constitutional crisis in the city."[9]

The Hong Kong Bar Association also questioned legal and evidential basis for the decision as it effectively invited "the central government to override Article 69 of the Basic Law and Hong Kong legislation."[10] Various governments including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union slammed the government decision. Germany also announced it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.[11]

On 11 November 2020, the NPCSC ruled in a decision which bars Legislative Council members from supporting Hong Kong independence, refusing to recognise Beijing's sovereignty over Hong Kong, seeking help from "foreign countries or foreign forces to interfere in the affairs of the region" or committing "other acts that endanger national security". As a result, four sitting legislators, Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung whose candidacies were invalidated by the Returning Officers in the later-postponed September election, were ousted from the legislature with immediate effect. After the disqualification, the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators announced their resignation in protest of the decision. Adding to the previous disqualifications and resignations, the total number of vacancies jumped to 27 with virtually no opposition in the Legislative Council as a result.[12]