Hong Kong electoral changes: up to three years’ jail proposed for publicly urging residents to boycott polls or spoil ballots

Legislation, which aims at implementing Beijing-decreed overhaul of city’s electoral system, highlights the new criminal offence related to publicly calling for blank and invalid protest ballots

Race for seats on Election Committee will be held on September 19, Legislative Council polls to be further pushed back to December 19 while contest for city’s top job will take place on March 27

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Hong Kong’s electoral system has been given a huge shake-up. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:48pm, 13 Apr 2021Updated: 11:13pm, 13 Apr 2021

People who publicly encourage voters to boycott elections or spoil their ballots as a form of protest against Beijing’s drastic overhaul of the city’s electoral system will be committing a crime carrying a jail sentence of up to three years under new legislation unveiled by the Hong Kong government on Tuesday.

Officials also announced three key election dates: the contest for seats on the Election Committee, which has been newly empowered to control all key polls, will be held on September 19; the Legislative Council polls, which was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, will be further pushed back to December 19; and the race for the city’s top job will be held on March 27 next year.

An umbrella bill consolidating more than 700 pages of amendments to existing ordinances and subsidiary legislation was gazetted on Tuesday to flesh out details of the broad outlines set by Beijing’s top legislative body last month, in keeping with the official bottom line that only “patriots” would be allowed to administer Hong Kong following the anti-government protest chaos of 2019.

According to the new details, the system would allow the voter bases for Legco’s trade-based functional constituencies and the Election Committee to be largely dominated by pro-Beijing forces, and publicly calling for blank or invalid protest ballots would become a criminal offence.

“We all want elections to be very fair. Any manipulation to jeopardise or sabotage an election should not be permitted in Hong Kong,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at a media briefing to explain the raft of local legislation. “If you do it behind closed doors and among a few friends, then perhaps it’s not an offence.”

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah said anyone publicly inciting others to boycott voting or cast invalid ballots could be prosecuted. That would include public communication through speeches, broadcasts, screening and playing of recordings, or publishing of materials such as emails or leaflets.

“Behaviour that can be observed by the public, such as putting up banners outside a flat window to incite others to cast invalid votes will also be illegal,” she said. “Doing some actions and gestures observable by the public, wearing a shirt with slogans, holding flags or wearing accessories carrying those meanings are not permitted as well.”