(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Candidate Eligibility Review Committee comprises several principal officials and its decisions pursuant to the opinion of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security will not be subject to legal proceedings.

According to the amended Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has to establish the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee which shall be responsible for assessing and validating the eligibility of candidates in the Election Committee, Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections.

If the review committee has questions about a candidate’s qualifications on the basis of national security, it will pass it to Police's National Security Department for assessment.

Pursuant to a Police assessment, the Committee for Safeguarding National Security will decide whether a candidate complies with the legal requirements and conditions for upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR, and issue an opinion to the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee in respect of a candidate who fails to meet such legal requirements and conditions.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam explained at a press conference this afternoon that the role of Police was for fact-finding only.

“They are only conducting reviews, they are doing the fact-finding and then presenting the facts to the committee that I chair, that is the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong SAR.

“The decision of whether a candidate based on the findings could fulfil or meet the statutory requirements of swearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR and upholding the Basic Law is not one for Hong Kong Police Force, it is one for this committee. And by the way, the English translation of this committee is the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee.

“And it is only right because you need resources, you need to build up that expertise on how to find the facts. It is not something that you and I can do. So Police have been given this responsibility under the National Security Law. So it is only right that they will discharge this duty as required under the National Security Law.”

Addressing conflict of interest concerns, Mrs Lam noted that the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee comprises several principal officials, not a single individual.

“Although I said that if they are disqualifying candidates on the basis of national security, then they could not disclose why - that are the details - and the decision is not subject to judicial review, it is all in the public domain for people to see whether a particular person has been disqualified.

“So I do not think that the mere fact that the Chief Executive, (being) the Chairman of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong SAR, will be able to single-handedly decide who is eligible, who is not eligible.

“The public has all to judge whether a decision has been made rightly or wrongly, because for somebody to compete or contest in a Chief Executive election, it could not be somebody who is totally unknown.

“I am sure that society will be able to judge how could this candidate be disqualified, there must be an expression of opinion if that sort of thing happened just because of an incumbent Chief Executive trying to interfere with the decision of the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee.”