Rivals gripe over Peck's wrong number
Pamela Peck Wan-kam, who is contesting a 'super seat' in the Legco election, has received complaints from pan-democratic candidates in all five geographical constituencies because she is using the wrong candidate number on her banners for next month's poll.
The so-called super seats will be elected by a citywide ballot open to 3.2 million voters - all those without a vote in traditional functional constituencies. Peck's banners display the number 3, yet super-seat candidates are allocated numbers between 801 and 807. Peck's is 803.
Such numbers are used in each constituency to distinguish between candidates or lists of candidates.
Peck, a Wan Chai district councillor and the partner of celebrity lawyer and lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, insists her team made an honest mistake, and she is trying to correct all 1,400 of her election banners. But geographical constituency candidates who have drawn No3 are crying foul and say Peck is confusing the voters.
These candidates include independent Lo Wing-lok on Hong Kong Island, the League of Social Democrats' Andrew To Kwan-hang in Kowloon East, The Democratic Party's Josephine Chan Shu-ying in New Territories West, and Emily Lau Wai-hing in New Territories East, as well as Tam Kwok-kiu of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) in Kowloon West. Lau, Chan and Tam filed their complaints earlier this week, while Lo and To did so yesterday.
It is illegal to publish a false or misleading statement to aid or hinder election candidates.
Lo said he complained because 'it is obviously a false statement'.
'I think the impact on my chances of getting elected is minimal, but it will surely confuse voters,' he said.
Peck said her campaign manager had made the mistake because the person was unfamiliar with the rules. She also said the government should share the blame for any confusion that arises because it failed to clearly explain to the public how the super-seat system works.
Peck's opponents for the super seats - in a functional constituency for district councils - are Lau Kong-wah and a list of candidates from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, two lists of Democratic Party candidates and slates of candidates representing the Federation of Trade Unions and the ADPL.
