The Liberal Party will be putting forward a motion to investigate threats against its LegCo election candidate Ken Chow Wing-kan, the party’s representative have said.
Dominic Lee Tsz-king of the Liberal Party said during RTHK’s City Forum on Sunday that his party’s four incoming lawmakers will be tabling a motion to look into the allegations by invoking the Legislative Council (Power and Privilege) Ordinance. The law gives legislators investigative powers to keep the government in check.
Chow, who ran as a Liberal Party candidate, suspended his campaigns in late-August citing threats from secretive agents acting on behalf of Beijing.
Chow’s party colleague James Tien Pei-chun later said that the China Liaison Office had asked Tien to dissuade Chow from running in order to help Chow’s rival Junius Ho Kwan-yiu win a seat. Ho, representing the pro-Beijing DAB party, eventually won – albeit with the fewest votes among the nine winners in the New Territories West constituency.
The Liberal Party said it had filed a report with the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
However, DAB lawmaker-elect Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan said that the Liberal Party’s proposal lacked substance. Cheung refused to state whether the DAB would support the motion at this preliminary stage.
A members’ motion requires a simple majority vote in the geographical and functional constituencies respectively. The pro-democracy camp does not have a simple majority advantage in the functional constituency. Therefore, without the support of the DAB, which has won 12 seats in this year’s Legco election, a members’ motion is unlikely to pass.
The DAB, or the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, is the largest political party in the territory.
