Mr T
Senior Member
There's a first time for everything. Also, primaries are not run by a territory's officials or government - unless it's a one-party state (in which case primaries are unlikely anyway).
Yes, that's the exact point of a primary - to narrow down the candidates for one party or political grouping to avoid votes being split. Do you think the Democrats would have any chance of ousting Donald Trump if they had 3 candidates instead of 1?
What HK law specifically bans primaries? I'm thinking of a law with a specific provision on primaries rather than the new "anything the CCP doesn't like is banned" national security legislatation.
Nice strawman - I didn't say it was ok. But if opposition lawmakers received anonymous threats, that doesn't invalidate the primary. Otherwise, pro-CCP trolls could make the threats and therefore sabotage the primaries, thereby increasing the chances of the pro-democracy parties splitting their votes.
If the HK authorities think the threats are a problem, perhaps they should use the new national security legislation to identify the people who made the threats and prosecute them. Or is the law just reserved for protecting pro-CCP officials and politicians?
There is no empirical evidence for that, unless you want to suggest that Obama was selected as the Democratic 2008 candidate by "extremists". Also, in the case of HK, it's understandable that younger candidates would be selected as young HKers are most politically engaged right now, and there is an argument that the softly-softly approach of the traditional pan-democrat legislators hasn't changed anything.
I'll ask you again more clearly. Can you provide some newspaper articles that confirm those complaints, or that state the Democratic Party is unwilling to accept the primary result? If you're just relying on internet rumours, that's not enough.
They do have a choice, especially if they feel the primary process was flawed. What are they risking by standing - people not voting for them in the future? If they don't run they don't get votes anyway!
Ah, so any vote except for a pro-CCP party is a "stupid" vote. Because the pro-CCP parties that have run Hong Kong since 1997 have done such an outstanding job, with spiralling property prices, lack-luster wages for ordinary people and crap public spending.
