Flood of responses crashes discrimination law website
Consultation on review of legislation extended to end of month due to 'intense public interest' after more than 5,000 submissions received
The deadline for submissions on a controversial review of Hong Kong's discrimination law has been extended to the end of this month after an avalanche of responses crashed the review's website yesterday.
The Equal Opportunities Commission said that more than 5,000 submissions had been received by Friday and it had not been possible to count those received over the weekend which had overloaded the website causing it to crash yesterday.
The three-month consultation, which began on July 8, was originally due to end today, but numerous groups had called for an extension to six months because of the important and controversial issues involved.
The commission yesterday extended the deadline to the end of the month due to "intense interest of the public".
Religious groups, gay rights groups, small and medium enterprises and lawmakers have urged an extension, arguing that attention has been drawn from the consultation by the Occupy Central protests.
"If the impact is so extensive, why don't they let more people know about it? My association has not received any information from the EOC so far," said Jimmy Wan Hoi-hung, founding president of Hong Kong Greater China SME Alliance Association.
He said many members of his group did not know anything about the review.