Oaths will come after councillor resignations: CE

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the government won’t immediately start making district councillors take an oath of allegiance, since many are still resigning.

She said oath taking will take place once the situation has stabilised – but one district councillor says the government should hurry up and pull the trigger on the requirement if it’s already decided oaths are needed.

A bill extending the oath-taking requirement to district councillors was passed by the Legislative Council earlier this month.

Opposition candidates swept to victory in the last elections in 2019, gaining control of all but one of the city’s 18 district councils. But around 20 district councillors have resigned in recent months – including some who face charges related to the Beijing-imposed national security law.

“Why are we still waiting? It’s because there are district councillors resigning every day,” Lam said. “So we’d rather wait for the situation to stabilise and then we’ll arrange for the oath-taking. It will definitely happen.”

But Southern district councillor Paul Zimmerman said it’s an unnecessary delay, calling on the government to “just do it”.

He said the oath-taking exercise is unnecessary anyway, as district councillors made promises to act in respect of the Basic Law when they took part in the last elections in 2019.

“I think the argument of not doing it now because you wait for people to resign… I mean people may want you to announce a date and the timing then people will make up their mind very quickly,” he said.