Electors register yachts as their main homes despite law against living aboard pleasure craft
JEFFIE LAMjeffie.lam@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 29 August, 2015, 12:01am
UPDATED : Saturday, 29 August, 2015, 12:01am
Yachts at the Gold Coast club in Tuen Mun. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Different government departments appear all at sea over what constitutes a home, after at least five voters successfully registered yachts in Tuen Mun as their homes - despite a Marine Department ban on using pleasure craft as residences.
Lawmakers and a scholar say the matter reflects lax checks by the Registration and Electoral Office, which is already under intense scrutiny over a string of dubious voter registrations, four years on from a spate of irregularities ahead of the 2011 district council elections. They say the office's lenient approach can only encourage abuse of the system.
A South China Morning Post study found that five voters had used yachts berthed at the plush Gold Coast Yacht and Country Club in Tuen Mun as their address. By law, voters may use only their "principal residential address" when registering. Anyone who gives false or misleading details faces up to six months in jail and a fine of up to HK$5,000.
However, merchant shipping regulations stipulate that yachts cannot be used as dwellings and may only be used for pleasure.
The Post visited the luxury club in an attempt to trace the five registered voters, and spoke to a woman who said she was the partner of one of them.
"We only treat the yacht as a second home," the local woman said, adding they owned property on Hong Kong Island, where she was registered to vote, and spent a day or two per week on the vessel. She had no idea why her partner registered there.
Chinese University Political scientist Dr Ma Ngok said it was unacceptable for the electoral office to accept yachts - which could not be a "principal residential address" - in registration.
"The office's lenient approach would only further encourage people to abuse the system," he said.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun said the electoral office could accept yachts as legitimate addresses if voters could prove they were indeed residing there - even though, in doing so, the voters could open themselves up to action from the Marine Department.
"But the voters - who in fact are not living on yachts - would have breached the law if they made false reports claiming the vessels were their residences," said To, also a lawyer. "The electoral office should have beefed up its check on such cases."
The electoral office said it would contact the voters to verify their address, while the Marine Department said it would initiate investigations based on reports or complaints from the public.
The office is already dealing with a flood of complaints from pan-democratic parties over the provisional electoral roll, relating to more than 550 voters said to have given false or suspicious addresses ahead of November's district council polls. They include people claiming to live in buildings that are vacant, or on floors that do not exist. Scores of people were convicted of registering false addresses in 2011.
The provisional roll is now closed to the public. A final electoral roll will be out in a month.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1853524/floating-voters-five-hong-kong-people-register-yachts-main
