Amendment without consent raises fresh doubts on verification methods of watchdog
TONY CHEUNGtony.cheung@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 01 September, 2015, 7:00am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 01 September, 2015, 7:00am
Nixie Lam Lam and Lam Yuk-chun are councillors whose addresses were changed without their consent. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The elections watchdog is facing more scrutiny after two district councillors learned their registered addresses were changed without their consent.
The pair affected were Nixie Lam Lam, a Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong member of Tsuen Wan District Council, and Lam Yuk-chun, a non-affiliated Southern district councillor, said DAB vice-chairman Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan. The DAB reported the cases to police.
It came to light when Lam checked her registration status online. Cheung warned that a change of address - which could be made by anyone with the voter's identity card number and name - could cause a person to miss a verification letter from the Registration and Electoral Office, leading to their voter registration being cancelled and making them ineligible to stand in November's district polls.
"It is also a criminal act for anyone to fill in [a voter registration] with wrong information," said Ip Kwok-him, a DAB lawmaker who serves with Cheung on Central and Western District Council.
A series of irregularities have been spotted in the provisional register, raising doubts about the adequacy of the office's verification work after a flood of voter fraud cases at the last district polls four years ago.
Cheung said the DAB had found over 100 irregularities on the register for Central and Western, including 98 cases of voters claiming to live in commercial buildings or street-level shops, and 19 of people living in buildings vacant for redevelopment. Voters were also registered in a demolished building and on the 12th floor of a 10-storey building.
Cheung said that instead of relying on letters and visiting voters to verify addresses, the watchdog should set up a database.
"If a building is demolished or vacated for redevelopment, the Buildings Department [and the Urban Renewal Authority] would know … The [office] should collect this information and match it against the electoral roll."
Last week, Democratic Party community officers Winfield Chong Wing-fai and Bonnie Ng Hoi-yan reported 107 irregularities in the Central and Western electoral roll.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1854222/district-councillors-addresses-changed-register-raising
