Seven members and staff of Hong Kong taxi association among 17 charged over vote-rigging during 2016 Legislative Council elections
- Four persons assisted 240 ineligible voters to register for a constituency by submitting false information about their qualification and education
- Others offered bribes of up to HK$1,000 to 41 people to ensure they voted for a particular candidate
Seven members and staff of a taxi association were among 17 charged on Thursday over vote-rigging during the Legislative Council elections in 2016.
Four of them assisted some 240 ineligible voters to register for the Information Technology Functional Constituency with false qualifications, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Others offered bribes of up to HK$1,000 (US$127) to 41 people to ensure they voted for a particular candidate.
The defendants associated with the Taxi Drivers and Operators Association are its corporate director Li Wai-man, 52; vice-secretary Yeung Yiu-hung, 33; financial director Wong Suen-lai, 44; executive committee members Lui Ah-fook, 45, and Li Lam-cheong, 47; member Chan Chun-shing, 60, and clerk Poon Sau-fong, 51.
Some of the remaining accused have family ties with Lui Ah-fook, including his 23-year-old son and younger sisters. All the defendants and those who received the payments but were not charged are related to one another as relatives and schoolmates.
The accused were charged under two different cases.
In the first case, 14 will be brought to Eastern Magistrates’ Court on Friday to face a total of 12 charges, including conspiracy to engage in corrupt conduct at an election by offering or accepting an advantage. Each charge carries up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of HK$500,000.
Li Wai-man, Yeung, Poon and Wong were accused of conspiring with a clerk at the taxi group between April 12 and July 16 in 2016 to defraud the Registration and Electoral Office.
They allegedly made applications for about 240 people to attain full membership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers by submitting false information about their professional qualification and education.
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The status is a ticket for someone to vote in the Information Technology Functional Constituency.
The four then helped those people to launch their voters’ applications to the election office and induced staff there to make approvals.
Li Wai-man, Lui Ah-fook, his younger sister Lui Wai-fong and his son Lui King-yin, were accused of offering HK$1,000 to 36 people between April 14 and September 4, while others were accused of pocketing the bribe as an inducement to rig the votes.
Their case is expected to be transferred to the District Court.
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In the second case, Li Lam-cheong, Chan Chun-shing and his daughter Chan Hiu-ting, 31, will be brought to Eastern Magistrates’ Court on Friday to make a plea on a joint count of conspiracy to engage in corrupt conduct at an election by offering an advantage to others. Each of the two Chans are also facing an extra count of accepting the advantage.
It is alleged that between April 27 and September 4, the three offered HK$1,000 to five people as an inducement to vote for a particular candidate.
The two Chans allegedly received HK$1,000 on May 21 on another occasion.
In 2017, the Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested 72 people over the incident.
