People's Daily in China Lists Cases of Major Countries Postponing Elections... Justification for Hong Kong Election Postponement

UK's Past Cases of Election Postponement During 2001 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak
Hong Kong Election Postponed Emphasizing Measures Amid COVID-19 Spread

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] On the 5th (local time), the Chinese state-run People's Daily published an article extensively introducing cases of election postponements in countries such as the United Kingdom to emphasize the necessity and justification of postponing the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) election.

In particular, it detailed the UK's case of postponing elections due to an epidemic, indirectly warning against interference in the Hong Kong election postponement.

The People's Daily emphasized that many countries have postponed elections and voting over the past six months due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and that the postponement of the Hong Kong election has no political intent whatsoever.

The newspaper first introduced the UK's election postponement in detail. It reported that the UK local elections scheduled for May were postponed by one year. At the time of the postponement, the UK government postponed the elections considering the spread of COVID-19, according to the People's Daily.

The People's Daily also mentioned that during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001, the UK postponed local elections for one month.

At that time, the UK Electoral Commission stated that "it cannot guarantee voters' safe participation in the election, and it is not easy to effectively convey information about candidates to voters," and thus postponed the election, the People's Daily reported.

The People's Daily listed statements made by UK politicians at the time such as "the right decision," "difficulties in election management," and "postponing elections is the right method."

The People's Daily also reported that Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) postponed its party congress to elect the party chairman due to COVID-19. The newspaper added that several other countries including Italy, Poland, Iran, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and Bolivia also postponed elections due to concerns over COVID-19 infection.

Hong Kong authorities originally scheduled the election for September 6 but postponed it by one year citing the spread of COVID-19. Since the postponement, Western countries, mainly the US and Europe, have criticized the decline of democracy in Hong Kong and pressured the Chinese government. The Western camp criticizes the postponement as a Chinese trick to change the election landscape, where the opposition democratic camp is dominant, under the pretext of COVID-19 spread.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.