PRO DEMOCRACY legislators promised yesterday to march in protest minutes after Hong Kong's July 1st handover to China, refusing to recognise new limits on demonstrations coming into effect that day.
Members of the Frontier political alliance also promised to avenge Beijing's decision to scrap Hong Kong's elected legislature by winning new elections promised within a year of the British colony's return to Chinese rule.
Ms Emily Lau said Frontier and other activist groups would hold a prodemocracy rally on the evening of June 30th and then march on government offices in the first minutes of July 1st, after the territory passes to Chinese rule at midnight. "We will be carrying torches, huge flames to show the flames of democracy, she told a news conference. A fellow Frontier legislator, Mr Lee Cheukyan, said the group would notify police, as required by current law.
But it would not seek a "notice of no objection" as required under new laws to be enacted by the controversial provisional legislature that will replace the current council, he said.
"On the question of whether we will apply for a permit to march on July 1st, we will definitely do so," Mr Lee said. "We will use the same notification form that we have used in the past because we do not recognise the new law."
Prodemocracy activists have denounced the new laws as a de facto permit system designed to stifle dissent.
Hong Kong's future leader, Mr Tung Cheehwa, made clear yesterday that the new laws would have effect the minute the territory becomes a part of China on July 1st.
But it was still uncertain how the new Special Administrative Region (SAR) government would handle its first challenge by pro democracy forces, expected soon after midnight.
There has been debate over whether a legal vacuum would exist in the several hours between the midnight handover of Hong Kong by Britain and the passage of new laws. But Mr Tung insisted that new legislation would be retroactive, covering the gap.
Ms Lau said Frontier would not be joining the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's largest, which plans to denounce the new provisional legislature from the balcony of the Legislative Council building in central Hong Kong just after the handover.
Beijing has said electoral rules for the 1995 election violated previous Sino British accords and decided to replace the legislature on July 1st with a provisional council handpicked by a China backed committee, promising fresh elections under revised rules within a year of Hong Kong's handover.
Ms Lau said Frontier would work together with the rest of Hong Kong's democratic camp and go all out to win.
Frontier's five current legislators said that once out of office they would have a harder time raising funds and getting media attention, and new electoral rules are expected to favour proBeijing candidates, they said.