Probe into village electoral roll graft
Ahead of new-style elections, ICAC officers investigate 14 complaints
The ICAC is investigating 14 complaints of corruption concerning the way in which the electoral rolls were compiled for the forthcoming elections of rural village representatives.
Some of the complaints deal with claims that people trying to register as voters deliberately gave false details. Others allege bribery.
A spokesman for the Independent Commission Against Corruption refused to comment on the cases, but said it was investigating complaints of breaches of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.
In addition to the 14 cases currently being investigated, a further 2,200 cases involving suspected irregularities have been heard by four special magistrates.
The four officials, known as revising officers under regulations governing the elections, finished hearing the cases by the May 15 deadline.
A spokesman for the Home Affairs Department said they were still waiting for detailed judgments from the four magistrates.
Most of the objections are based on people making false or improper claims so they can vote in the village elections, due to take place at the end of this month.
More than 167,000 voters in 707 villages will pick two representatives for each settlement.
The polling will be a major change from the way rural leaders have been elected in the past. Previous elections had restricted voting to indigenous villagers - people who can trace their roots in their village back to 1898.
The electoral rolls are divided in two. One is for indigenous, who will pick one representative.
Voters on this poll do not have to live in the village.
The other electoral roll is for all adults who have lived in the village for at least three years.
A two-year consultation period to find a new system of voting followed legal battles which found the old system to be unlawful. The new electoral setup has been opposed fiercely by some village elders.
For more than a year, staff from the Home Affairs Department have been briefing rural leaders on the poll preparations.
In the past two months, ICAC officers have held education drives to warn candidates that the old days are over and they should not be treating voters to lavish feasts, which were a traditional feature of village polls in the past.
For months before the electoral registrations ended on May 5, Home Affairs staff told village officials that all rolls would be checked and that any falsification of voting rights would be an offence punishable by up to six months in jail.
Despite these warnings, there have already been 2,200 complaints or queries about wrongful registration to get on to the rolls.
