(Yau Tong West Constituency) Amid controversy, no re-count despite citizens’ multiple requests
#Newspaper
(25 Nov)The Yau Tong West constituency started counting votes at 11:15pm yesterday. Yet many people violated the rules inside the counting area. Meanwhile, the treatment of problematic ballots was also controversial, causing an uproar among citizens on site. They chanted numerous times “against the rules, against the laws,” and demanded “re-count”.
During the ordeal, Returning Officer TSE Ling-chun of Kwun Tong district was once on site. He suggested that the public and the candidates could file an election petition if they had any complaints, but didn't say another word after that. Presiding Officer MAK Pui-lin together with TSE Ling-chun and other people left the counting station again at around 5:07am. Counting Area q was manned by staff in blue shirt. When it was nearly 5:44am, two riot police officers and Presiding Officer and other people re-entered the counting area. Presiding Officer did not explain the reason why riot police stayed inside.
The standoff lasted until early morning. Presiding Officer started re-counting the problematic ballots amid yelling, and went behind closed doors with a lawyer in red shirt and others. After much discussions, Presiding Officer faced the observers on site and declared that the Yau Tong West constituency was won by Candidate No. 1, LUI Tung Hai of Positive Synergy, with 3,388 votes, and Candidate No. 2, Michael WONG Siu Nam, a community development officer of Yau Tong West, got 3,042 votes and was defeated. As for the the request of re-count by the citizens on site, she said there were not enough invalid ballots to overcome the difference and, hence, no need to consider a re-count.
Mr. q (pseudonym) was on site to monitor the vote count since the beginning of counting. He claimed he saw Candidate No. 1 Lui Tung Hai step inside the yellow lines numerous times since 11:30pm. He also said counting officers on site repeatedly pulled ballots from the heap for Candidate No. 2, and claimed they wrongly put some ballots for No. 1 to the No. 2 heap. He also criticised the Presiding Officer for drawing suspicion in the standards by which ballots were judged to be valid or not.
[Forwarded from Hobbit Shire]
Kee (pseudonym) was on site to monitor counting starting at around 2am. She pointed out that Presiding Officer flip-flopped: At times admitting violations of rules inside the counting area, at times asking observers on site to file complaints on their own for any dissatisfaction. She criticised that Presiding Officer left the station numerous times beginning at nearly 3am, and couldn’t ensure that the ballots were unaltered. Later, Presiding Officer even once covered the ballot box with a yellow jacket, but was questioned by monitors on site for low security. She pointed out that Presiding Officer originally claimed counting would go on only when both candidates are present. Yet, as soon as Candidate Wong Siu Nam left the station, she changed her theory, and said counting could resume even when Candidate No. 2 was not present. Presiding Officer said she already asked her subordinate to contact Wong Siu Nam by phone. Kee questioned why Presiding Officer called a plastic container with a No. 2 label a problematic ballot box. Facing challenges from monitoring citizens, she just tore away the label.
Persons a, b, and c (pseudonyms) were also present on site to monitor the process. They called out Presiding Officer for treating a large quantity of problematic ballots as valid. Among them, some ballots had stamps on the profile pictures rather than the circle. Some check marks were replaced by crosses, and some checks were incomplete. They all were treated as valid ballots. Some people even once put ballots that voted for Candidate No. 2 into the No. 1 plastic box. Person c claimed to witness Presiding Officer put a stamp on one of the ballots for no reason, and couldn't ascertain the intention.
Reporter: LEE Lok Yee
Source: CUHKRadio
https://bit.ly/35FuBZX (https://bit.ly/35FuBZX)
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