IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok expresses shock and asks whether rise is a result of pro-Beijing moves to sign up electors
TONY CHEUNG AND NG KANG-CHUNG
UPDATED : Wednesday, 01 June, 2016, 5:54pm
Lawmaker Charles Mok expresses concern about a sharp increase in voters in his constituency. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A sharp rise in the number of voters in the information technology functional constituency has prompted the incumbent lawmaker to express shock and question whether pro-Beijing forces are getting people to sign up.
The information technology constituency saw the biggest expansion in voter numbers – from 6,716 in 2012 to 12,046 this year – a rise of 79.4 per cent, according to provisional voter statistics released by the government on Wednesday.
The number of voters in the accountancy sector rose by 901 – the second biggest growth among the 28 traditional functional constituencies. There are 25,970 registered voters in the sector.
Among geographical constituencies, New Territories East and Kowloon West recorded the biggest increases of 11.1 per and 11 per cent respectively. The two constituencies have 971,961 and 486,354 voters respectively.
As for age, the proportion of voters aged 61 or above grew from 25.9 per cent of all voters to 29.2 per cent this year, while that for those aged 31 to 60 dropped slightly from 56.8 per cent in 2012 to 53.7 per cent.
Commenting on the increase, incumbent IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok expressed “shock”, claiming the move added weight to a conspiracy theory that Beijing was orchestrating things from behind the scenes.
“This proved the media reports that various trade organisations had tried to attract voters by reducing membership fees ... It also proved that some functional constituencies, especially the professional sectors, are strongholds that Beijing’s liaison office wants to take [from the pan-democrats],” Mok said.
Mok estimated there were about 100,000 people working in the information technology sector but under the law, only members of prescribed organisations were eligible to register as voters.
“We heard about this [suspected] vote-rigging ... and I know many people also registered as voters to counter such efforts, but I only expected the number to rise to about 8,000 or 9,000,” added Mok.
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Asked if he was worried about being unseated by a pro-establishment rival in September, Mok said: “It is very difficult to speculate on what will happen. I would just like to remind voters to vote according to their free will, however they were registered.”
The provisional registers of electors and omission lists are available for public inspection until June 25.
There are about 3.77 million registered electors for geographical constituencies, up from 3.47 million in 2012.
About 3.47 million electors are registered in the district council (second) functional constituency, which elects five lawmakers, while traditional functional constituencies have 239,000 registered electors.
Registered electors can log on to the online voter information inquiry system at www.voterinfo.gov.hk or call 28911001 to ask about their registration particulars.
The Registration and Electoral Office will publish the final registers of electors on or before July 25.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1961580/hong-kong-legislative-council-it-functional-constituency
