Questions raised over credibility of planned anti-Occupy signature campaign

Questions have been raised about the credibility of an anti-Occupy Central group's plan to collect signatures from those who oppose the civil disobedience movement after it admitted there were no measures in place to prevent repeat signatures.

The Alliance for Peace and Democracy hopes to collect 800,000 signatures to outnumber the 780,000 people who voted in the pro-democracy movement's unofficial referendum last month on reform options for the 2017 chief executive election.

"We want to find out how many people object to Occupy Central and want to avoid chaos," group spokesman Robert Chow Yung said yesterday.

Chow, a former RTHK radio host, said signatures would also be accepted from people aged under 18, tourists, foreign domestic helpers and those in Hong Kong on working visas.

"I believe these people should also have a say on how they want the city to be," he said.

There is no measure in place to prevent repeat signatures as people who sign will be asked for only the letter and first four digits of their ID cards. "We can only ask people to exercise self-respect [and not sign more than once]," Chow said.