Injunction to shield Hong Kong voter register from public to prevent doxxing to remain through district council elections – as police group pleas to make it permanent
- Junior Police Officers’ Association says urgency needed to prevent wider public release of personal information of 4.1 million voters
- Groups says posting the data would expose voters to the same online harassment faced by police officers and their families
An injunction to shield voter registers from public view will remain in place until after the district council elections, as Hong Kong’s largest police group seeks to make the temporary ban permanent.
The Court of First Instance on Wednesday scheduled a hearing on the matter for December 16 – three weeks after the district council polls on November 24. The court will, at that time, hear the judicial review application filed by the Junior Police Officers’ Association, which had the interim injunction granted by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
At the hearing on Wednesday before Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming, the association applied to expedite the case by arranging another hearing this month. The ban applies to Hong Kong’s provisional voter register and the final version.
Abraham Chan Lok-shung SC, for the police association, said urgency was necessary to prevent the wider public release of the personal information of 4.1 million voters. Chan said posting this data would expose voters to the same threat of doxxing – online harassment based on personal details – faced by police officers and their families.
Government lawyer Raymond Leung Wai-man SC said further disruption to the present election process might subject the results to legal challenges. Leung said unsuccessful candidates might claim the ban on public access to voter registers made the election unfair.