HONG KONG - A Hong Kong court rejected on procedural grounds on Wednesday a challenge by an activist to his disqualification from district elections in the city last year.

High Court Judge Anderson Chow Ka-ming said Joshua Wong Chi-fung should have filed an election petition instead of a judicial review, meaning he had chosen the wrong legal procedure.

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Wong, 23, was disqualified in the district council elections after his candidacy contravened electoral laws that bar “advocating or promoting self-determination” for the special administrative region. Wong said he will decide his next steps after consulting lawyers.

Wong was also among 12 opposition candidates recently disqualified from running in elections for seats in the city’s legislature.

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Those polls were postponed by a year, to September 2021, with the government citing the risk of the novel coronavirus.

Election officials said grounds for disqualification from the city legislature election included subversive intentions, “opposition in principle” to the National Security Law and intentions to form a majority that could block government legislation.

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