Reports of irregularities and influencing tarnish Hong Kong Legco vote
Complaints of ballots being rejected, missing or crossed-out names and groups of voters being instructed who to support surfaced as the city hit the polls on Sunday
When Chan Sin-yee presented her ID card to a polling officer yesterday hoping to cast her first ever vote in a Legislative Council election, she was shocked to see her name already crossed out in red.
She was told there could be three possibilities: she had voted already (which she insisted was not the case), an officer had mistakenly crossed out her name, or, in the worst scenario, someone claiming to be her had appeared earlier at the Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School polling station.
“I feel helpless and angry,” Chan, a University of Hong Kong student, said. “I argued for half an hour to cast a ballot, but was told I could only take a tendered ballot, meaning it would not be counted tonight.”
Chan was not alone in reporting irregularities in a poll seen as the most critical in Hong Kong’s postcolonial polity, with the Electoral Affairs Commission reporting to have received more than 1,000 complaints on election day.
“We requested to see evidence that he willingly gave up the status as a super seat voter. We waited four hours but no one called us back.”
Kevin Law, 38, complained to police after he was similarly told his name had been crossed out.