7-member panel appointed as HKSAR's candidate eligibility review committee

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said on Tuesday that seven people have been appointed by Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam as members of the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee (CERC).

The HKSAR government will publish the appointment of the chairperson and members of the committee in the Gazette on July 9. The membership of the committee took effect from July 6.

According to the HKSAR government, Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR government John Lee was appointed as chairman of the committee, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang, Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui and Secretary for Security Chris Tang appointed as officials members.

Elsie Leung, Rita Fan and Lawrence Lau were appointed as non-official members of the committee.

A government spokesman said the non-official members appointed to the committee are all patriots, who protect national sovereignty, security and development interests, respect and uphold the fundamental system of the country and the constitutional order of the HKSAR.

"We are grateful for their acceptance of the appointment as members of the CERC who will assist in assessing and validating the eligibility of candidates in the Election Committee (EC), CE (Chief Executive) and Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, thereby providing a very important institutional safeguard for the implementation of patriots administering Hong Kong," he said.

In accordance with Annex I and Annex II to the HKSAR Basic Law, pursuant to the assessment made by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong police, the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR will decide whether a candidate complies with the legal requirements and conditions for upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the HKSAR of the People's Republic of China, and issue an opinion to the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee for those who do not comply with the legal requirements and conditions.