Joshua Wong, the leader of the "umbrellas" movement in Hong Kong, was not allowed to participate in the county elections for violating election laws.

"The decision to ban me from running for government is clearly politically motivated," Wong, 23, told reporters today, adding that he was the only person out of more than 1,100 candidates in the contest. District government elections are scheduled for November 24.

The district councils are the consultative body for local issues in Hong Kong and the election next month will elect 452 council members to serve for a four-year term.

In a statement, the Hong Kong government said a candidate was judged to be invalid for violating electoral laws prohibiting "supporting or promoting self-determination". However, the notice did not specify Joshua Wong's name.

Wong said he submitted his candidacy on October 4 and received three letters from election officials asking him to clarify his political views. "Everyone knows that the real cause is my name, Joshua Wong, which is synonymous with sin in their minds," Wong said.

Wong became the leader of the student-led "umbrella" movement in 2014 to protest Beijing's interference in the Hong Kong Special Zone chief election in 2017. In January 2018, Wong was convicted. sentenced to three months in prison for being on duty, but only served for 6 days and then released on bail to appeal. In May, the judge asked Wong to return to prison but reduced his sentence to two months. He was released on June 17.

Hong Kong since June has been in turmoil due to protests demanding the withdrawal of the extradition bill to allow suspects to go to places where there have been no extradition treaties with special zones, including mainland China. Although the government withdrew the bill, protests continued to demand other claims. Wong also went to Germany and the US to call for support for these protests.