Election candidates censured
Updated at 7.03pm: Six candidates who ran in the 2000 Legislative Council elections were publicly censured by the Electoral Affairs Commission for repeatedly breaching rules governing the display of election advertisements and its Guidelines on Election-related Activities.
They are Frederick Fung Kin-kee, who led a two-person ticket in the Kowloon West constituency; Tang Siu-tong, one of the six candidates on a list running for New Territories West and the members of a four-person list comprising Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, Chung Kong-mo, Pun Kwok-wah and Wong Wai-chuen contesting Kowloon West.
The Commission had received 13 complaints against Mr Fung, seven against Mr Tang and 11 against Mr Tsang's list.
Mr Fung admitted that his assistants might technically have broken electoral rules from oversight but maintained that he and his campaign assistants had endeavoured to observe electoral regulations.
Mr Tang said that some of volunteer assistants might have displayed election advertisements at non-designated spots by mistake and their action was beyond his control.
Mr Tsang also said that the breaches were made inadvertently.
But a spokesman of the Commission said that all the candidates had been given a copy of the Guidelines so they should have understood the regulations for displaying election advertisements and instructed their assistants accordingly.
'The responsibilities to observe the Guidelines should rest with the candidates themselves, who could not simply pass the buck to their assistants and other people.
'Despite repeated warnings, they still knowingly broke the Guidelines and slighted the importance of a fair election. The Commission strongly deplores their behaviour. They must be censured to uphold the fairness of an election,' the spokesman said.
