Eight jailed two months for rigging Yau Tsim Mong district council poll
Defendants falsely claimed to be living in Mong Kok so they could vote in King's Park constituency; offence very serious, court says
Eight people were each jailed for two months yesterday for vote-rigging in last November's district council elections.
Sisters Yim Sze-ming, Yim Hoi-man and Yim Mei-ki, travel agent Derrick Cheung Kwan-ho and his wife Cheung Sui-bing, bar workers Tsang Po-kei and Fanta Choi Heung-yu, and Oswald Cheung Kwan-ding, who is unemployed, had all pleaded guilty at Kowloon City Court to giving false addresses when registering to vote.
They were granted bail, pending appeal.
The court heard that the Yim sisters were regular customers of a noodle shop owned by Wong Biu, an independent candidate in the King's Park constituency. On one visit to the restaurant in July last year, the women were persuaded to sign voter registration forms without listing their home addresses.
Barrister Francis Cheng, who represented two of the sisters, said the Yims were told to sign the forms because a person "had to have enough votes to run". The sisters claimed to be living in Tung Choi Street and Soy Street in Mong Kok, though they were believed to be Tai Po residents.
The other five defendants falsely claimed to be living in Yin Chong Street in Mong Kok, also in the King's Park constituency.
