HONG KONG: EMILY LAU TO RUN IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Описание: (16 Dec 1997) English/Nat

One of the most popular politicians in Hong Kong has given up her British passport to run for next year's Legislative Council elections - the first since the Chinese took over on July 1st.

Emily Lau, an outspoken politician said she is ready to run for the election next year but is not optimistic about the future of Hong Kong's democracy.

Hong Kong's ousted legislator Emily Lau has never been more aware than now of her nation's one country - two systems policy.

Gearing up for first Legislative Council election since the July 1st handover, Lau declared on Tuesday that she is renouncing her British citizenship.

According to the Sino-British Basic Law, foreign passport holders cannot take up more than 12 of the 60 legislative council seats.

She was elected in 1995, and was outspoken on human rights and democracy issues.

The former Legislative Council was dissolved on June the 30th because the two governments of China and Britain could not come to agreement on to how the Legislative Council was going to work under Chinese sovereignty.

Since then she has formed her own Party, the Frontier Party, and it will be putting up candidates for the 60 seats on the Legislative Council.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" Well, I've decided to give up my British citizenship because I want to stand for direct election to the Legislative Council next year and the law, of course, says that no candidate for direct election can have foreign citizenship or right of abode so that is why I have decided to give up my citizenship so that I can qualify as a candidate."
SUPERCAPTION: Emily Lau, Frontier Party leader

Married to a British barrister, Lau was made a British citizen in 1982.

But she doesn't think her change of citizenship will make a difference to her voters because they backed her in previous elections knowing she had a foreign passport.

However, she remains pessimistic about next year's elections and is calling on international observers to monitor them.

SOUNDBITE
"Well, of course the elections won't be fair because two thirds of the numbers of the Legislature would not be democratically elected but we certainly hope that there will not be too many irregularities or corruption. That's why I have been calling on people from all over the world to come and help monitor the elections and help us make sure that the elections will be as clean and as non-corrupt as possible."
SUPERCAPTION: Emily Lau, Frontier Party leader

One other former legislator had also given up her passport for the same reason as Lau.
But some people refused to run because they were reluctant to give up their foreign citizenship.

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