Hong Kong's ICAC steps up publicity drive against election fraud following 1,500 complaints about electoral roll
Graft-buster steps up publicity drive against vote-rigging after complaints
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 12:00am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 12:00am
Jeffie Lam
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The ICAC has teamed up with the Registration and Electoral Office and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau to fight against vote-rigging. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
The city's graft-buster has beefed up its publicity drive against vote-rigging ahead of district council elections in November, and urged candidates to more accurately declare campaigning costs.
The push for clean elections will particularly target elderly residents and first-time voters to remind them not to be taken in by fraudsters, following a series of vote-rigging scandals which marred the polls four years ago.
Last month it emerged that residents of homes for the elderly had apparently been registered as voters for the coming polls without their consent. The cases were among about 1,500 complaints processed by the courts regarding the electoral roll.
Lily Cheung Lai-tuen, programme coordinator of elections at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, said the watchdog would dish out some 300,000 pamphlets, hold talks at universities and homes for the elderly, and stage exhibitions around town to spread the message about the importance of a clean election.
"The ICAC has teamed up with the Registration and Electoral Office and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau to fight against vote-rigging," Cheung said. "We also call on the public not to engage in bribery, which includes accepting meals and entertainment [in return for votes]."
In 2011, media unearthed a series of vote-rigging incidents in the wake of the district council elections that year. The watchdog received 2,746 complaints, of which about 1,600 were related to vote-rigging, but only 58 people were prosecuted and 50 eventually convicted.
Cheung said the prosecution rate was low because most of the complaints were only about voters failing to update their address after moving house.
She also said half of the remaining 1,100 complaints referred to the inaccuracy of candidates' expenses declarations.
Candidates should make "reasonable estimates" of the costs incurred by their use of online promotion channels, including social media, she said.
Incumbent councillors are required to include payments to their assistants when declaring staff costs if those people are assigned to helping with the hustings, Cheung added.
The ICAC has briefed political parties and about 1,000 election aspirants on the "dos and don'ts" of elections, it said.
