What’s next for Hong Kong’s Legco after security law disqualifications and pandemic poll delay?

Local politics in Hong Kong have been absorbing the impacts of a new national security law (NSL) imposed on the city by the Chinese central government as well as an election delay blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic. In late July 2020, the city’s election commission cited the NSL as it  disqualified 12 potential opposition candidates from running in Legislative Council (Legco) elections initially scheduled for September 6. The day after the disqualifications were announced, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor delayed the polls for a full year, citing coronavirus concerns. The moves have further divided government supporters and opposition activists. The Post spoke to one of the disqualified politicians, as well as a Beijing loyalist lawmaker who must remain in Legco for another year, even though she was not seeking re-election.