BEIJING: Chinese lawmakers have extended the term of Hong Kong's Legislative Council by at least a year in order to deal with the vacuum left by postponing the city's elections, state media said Tuesday.
Hong Kong's leader said in late July that local elections planned for September would be postponed because coronavirus cases had surged in the international finance hub, a move which infuriated democracy supporters and drew concern from Western governments.
The city's Legislative Council, known as LegCo, will continue to perform its duties "for no less than one year" until the term of the next council begins, reported Chinese state broadcaster CCTV - although the fate of four opposition lawmakers barred from seeking re-election remains unclear.
Beijing's top lawmaking body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, had convened a four-day session on Saturday to discuss whether to extend the term of the current Hong Kong legislature - which will expire on September 30 - or to appoint a new "transitional body" to govern the semi-autonomous territory.
Election officials had earlier disqualified four pro-democracy legislators, saying their calls for foreign governments to impose sanctions on Beijing and Hong Kong violated the new national security law, which is criticised for eroding the city's political freedoms.
Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong's sole representative in the top decision-making body of China's parliament, told AFP Tuesday the resolution to extend the term of LegCo was passed unanimously.
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