Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Candidate disqualification

Legal area

Court

28 Sept 2020

KWOK WAI FUN, FRANCO (RETURNING OFFICER FOR THE KOWLOON WEST GEOGRAPHICAL CONSTITUENCY) v. LAU SIU LAI AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2020] HKCFA 31
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FAMV94/2020

The Court held that the returning officer's failure to afford the candidate any opportunity to be heard when invalidating her nomination was a material irregularity because it infringed fundamental rights (Basic Law art 26; HKBOR art 21(b)) and undermined procedural fairness and electoral integrity; it was unnecessary for the court to determine the substantive question of the candidate's true intention where materiality could be decided on the procedural breach, and the contrary arguments were not reasonably arguable.
20 Dec 2019

FAN GARY KWOK WAI v. CHAN YUEN MAN, AMY (RETURNING OFFICER FOR THE NEW TERRITORIES EAST GEOGRAPHICAL CONSTITUENCY) AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2019] HKCFA 50
Court

Court of Final Appeal
Case number

FAMV324/2019

Where an election petition establishes a statutory ground such as material irregularity arising from a wrongful disqualification, the court must determine under section 67(2) that the person whose election is challenged was not duly elected; the court has no discretion to allow that person to remain in office based on political considerations or alleged representativeness; applicants who took a neutral stance below and advance new factual assertions unsupported by evidence are not permitted to raise those arguments on leave to appeal; accordingly leave to appeal was dismissed.
13 Feb 2018

CHAN HO TIN v. LO YING KI ALAN AND OTHERS

Citation

[2018] HKCFI 345
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCAL162/2016

On a proper construction of the Legislative Council Ordinance and in light of the Basic Law and its interpretative context, the Declaration to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance is a substantive requirement for valid nomination. A Returning Officer may consider extrinsic materials, including responses to a Confirmation Form, and invalidate a nomination where there is cogent, clear and compelling objective evidence that the candidate lacked the genuine intention required at the time of nomination; procedural fairness requires giving the candidate an opportunity to respond and regard to…

Hong Kong Case Law

KWOK WAI FUN, FRANCO (RETURNING OFFICER FOR THE KOWLOON WEST GEOGRAPHICAL CONSTITUENCY) v. LAU SIU LAI AND ANOTHER

FAN GARY KWOK WAI v. CHAN YUEN MAN, AMY (RETURNING OFFICER FOR THE NEW TERRITORIES EAST GEOGRAPHICAL CONSTITUENCY) AND ANOTHER

CHAN HO TIN v. LO YING KI ALAN AND OTHERS