hong kong hong kong may postpone highly anticipated legislative elections scheduled for sept 6 citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semiautonomous chinese city local media reports said fridayan announcement could come as soon as friday evening multiple hong kong newspapers and tv stations said they all quoted unnamed sourcesa postponement would be a setback for the prodemocracy opposition which was hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with the current probeijing majority to make gains a group of 22 lawmakers issued a statement accusing the government of using the outbreak as an excuse to delay the votethe city of 75 million people has seen a surge in coronavirus infections since the beginning of july hong kong had recorded over 3100 infections as of thursday more than double the tally on july 1the government has tightened social distancing restrictions limiting public gatherings to two people and banned diningin at restaurants after 6 pmthe leadup to the elections has been closely watched after a national security law that took effect in late june stipulated that candidates who violated the law would be barred from runningthe new law is seen as beijings attempt to curb dissent in the city after months of prodemocracy and antigovernment protests in hong kong last yearon thursday 12 prodemocracy candidates including prominent prodemocracy activist joshua wong were disqualified from running for not complying with the citys constitution or pledging allegiance to the local and national governmentsbeyond any doubt this is the most scandalous election ever in hong kong history wong said at a news conference friday i wish to emphasize that no reasonable man would think that this election ban is not politically drivenbeijing has staged multiple acts to prevent the opposition bloc from taking the majority in the hong kong legislature he saidthe elections could be deferred for up to a year according to the south china morning post newspaper which cited unnamed sources