Doubed by Chinese power, this man, known for his role in the repression of the 2019 demonstrations, is the only candidate of the ballot.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping formally dubbed only one candidate for the post of the next head of the Hong Kong executive, John Lee, 64, number two of the outgoing government, can, without the slightest anxiety, expect to be acclaimed by a large majority of some 1,461 voters called in the ballot boxes on Sunday May 8.
The latter have also been scrupulously selected among the population of more than 7 million inhabitants of the Special Administrative Region (RAS) for their infallible patriotism with regard to China, according to criteria defined by the New electoral code imposed by Beijing in the spring of 2021. As for Mr. Lee, former police officer and ex-minister of security, he had been previously approved by a selection committee led by … himself.
Suffice to say that the ballot is more of an ultra-controlled designation than an election. Sunday, 7,000 police officers will nevertheless be deployed in the streets of the city, to ensure the smooth running of this administrative formality which should be settled in less than two hours. Most Hong Kongs observe the case with sarcasm and derision. The slogan “a man, a voice” that the population has long chanted to demand universal suffrage, specifically promised by article 45 of the Basic Law (mini-constitution of Hong Kong), was replaced in Cantonais by “all voices For a single man “.
lack of education
After an end of a calamitous five-year term (2017-2022) of the chief of the outgoing executive Carrie Lam, it is therefore to his assistant, the former “Chief Secretary” John Lee, that the ungrateful task returns to direct The territory, bleeding by two successive major crises which put it on the knees, morally and economically: the riots of 2019, triggered by an extradition bill to China – finally withdrawn -, and the fifth wave of COVID -19, as sudden as they are virulent. But many doubts hover for the ability of this former poorly known police officer and already widely mocked on social networks where he is decked out in several nicknames, the oldest being Pikachu (the Pokémon mascot), by Homophonie with his Cantonnais name (Lee ka-chiu).
“For most Hong Kong, it is even worse than Carrie Lam, because of her past as a police officer. We saw the brutality of the police in 2019 when he was Minister of Security,” said the world A former pro -democracy activist who asks not to be cited. “John Lee comes from the police and he is directly associated with Chaos of 2019 and the severe repression that follows, these are the most salient features of this candidate, analyzes John Burns, professor of politics and public administration at the ‘Hong Kong University. We can expect his way of directing to be that taught in the police as in the army: Order-Execution. Now it is the opposite of politics. “
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