The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong vice-chairman, Lau Kong-wah, yesterday denied his campaign team had violated any election regulations and said he was willing to give an account to enforcement agencies if required.
Questions were raised in the media about the ethical conduct of Mr Lau's campaigning on Saturday during an event at which village representatives and potential voters in Mr Lau's New Territories East constituency were treated to a vegetarian meal.
The event follows a public falling out between the rural body, the Heung Yee Kuk, and Mr Lau's party over the candidacy for the district council's functional constituency seat.
Yesterday, Independent Commission Against Corruption commissioner Timothy Tong Hin-ming confirmed graft-busters had received three complaints including allegations about the provision of food and drink.
According to election guidelines, and the corrupt and illegal conduct ordinance, 'no person ... should provide, or meet all or part of the cost of providing food, drink or entertainment to another person for the purpose of inducing or rewarding the latter to vote or not to vote for a particular candidate'.
Mr Lau said yesterday: '[Saturday's] situation was that we had some volunteers and friends together to do a publicity campaign ... Afterwards, the volunteers and supporters gathered together [to eat], just as when you provide some rice boxes on election day for our volunteers and supporters. As long as we report it in our election expenses, then there's no problem.' He added that receipts showed the day's expenses amounted to about HK$500.