Hong Kong Legislative Council election: jackets to be given as cover for ‘sensitive’ slogans worn by voters, police to step in if requests to leave ignored
- Poll authority says dissemination of a word or symbol with political or protest meaning would amount to election advertisement
- In an unprecedented move, civil servants at polling stations will be reimbursed on taxi charges for travelling to other locations to cast respective ballots
Voters in Hong Kong with attire sporting slogans deemed sensitive by polling station authorities on Sunday will be given jackets to cover up the designs, with police intervening if people refuse requests to leave, the Post has learned.
The measure was revealed last month by Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, the city’s election watchdog, according to sources present at a training session for polling station officers.
Fung had reportedly said the jackets were for covering “sensitive” political slogans on the day of the city’s Legislative Council election, the first such race since a Beijing overhaul of the system in March.
A spokesman for the Registration and Electoral Office, tasked with holding polls in Hong Kong, said on Friday that dissemination of a word or symbol with political or protest meaning would amount to election advertisement, if it was aimed at facilitating or preventing candidates from being returned.
“Displaying election advertisements inside a polling station and its vicinity on the polling day constitutes an offence,” the spokesman said.
“In previous elections, polling station officers would provide relevant voters with jackets worn by station staff to cover those words or symbols. The presiding officer may order the person to leave the polling station immediately in accordance with the law.”
The spokesman said the office would not comment on individual wording. A person with knowledge of polling arrangements on Sunday said at least 20 green jackets would be available at each station.