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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-04-14 17:15
Last update date: 2021-04-14 17:20
This Tuesday (April 13), the Executive Council passed the "Improvement of the Electoral System (Comprehensive Amendment) Bill 2021" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft"). The SAR government also gazetted the "Draft" on the same day and submitted it on the next day. The first and second readings of the Legislative Council.
One of the notable features of the "Draft" is the amendments to the "Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance" by including the introduction of "intentionally or obstructively preventing another person from voting in an election" or "inciting another person through public activities in an election." "One person does not vote or cast invalid votes" in Article 27A, which stipulates the offence, that is, the so-called regulation of the practice of advocating invalid or invalid votes.
The "Draft" states that any person who incites another person to "not vote in the election" through "public activities" during the election period or causes his ballots to "be deemed invalid in the election under any electoral law". The maximum fine is 200,000 yuan. And imprisonment for three years, in which "public activity" refers to "any form of communication to the public", "observable by the public...any conduct", "any conduct", and Distribute or disseminate any matter to the public. Examples of the provisions include speech, writing, printing, display announcements, broadcasting, screen projections, playing videos, actions, gestures and gestures, wearing or displaying clothes, signs, and flags. , Signs and stamps, and the Secretary for Justice Zheng Ruohua also specifically added at the press conference that e-mail or private residential window hanging provisions are also included.
[Election Restructuring] On April 13, 2021, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the "Improvement of the Electoral System (Comprehensive Amendment) Bill 2021".
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
Advocating that a vain ticket is not entirely legal
In fact, even in accordance with the existing laws, there is a certain chance that it is illegal for elections to promote unqualified or invalid votes.
Article 23 of the "Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance" stipulates that in addition to online election advertisements that only involve electricity bills and Internet access fees, "Anyone who is not a candidate or an election expense agent of the candidate who is in the election or "Incurring election expenses in connection with an election" is illegal, and the definition of "election expenses" includes "as far as a candidate or combination of candidates for an election... The expenses incurred or will be incurred by the election of a combination of candidates".
Therefore, if the advocacy of unqualified votes and invalid votes is interpreted as hindering the election of all candidates, then only by publishing online for free or acting as an election assistant for all candidates at the same time can they avoid relevant legal responsibilities.
In the provisions on fraud, which is more serious than illegal conduct in elections, the restriction on allowing another person to "not vote in the election" has already existed for a long time.
Since the "Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance" came into effect in 2000, Articles 11 to 14 respectively regulate "corrupt conduct of bribing voters or other people in elections" and "providing refreshments or refreshments to others during elections." Entertainment fraud", "the use of force or coercive methods on voters, or threats to use force or coercive methods on voters", "committing certain deceptive behaviors involving voters."
The frauds referred to in these provisions include not only inducing or coercing others to "vote for a candidate", but also include "not voting for a candidate in an election" or "not voting for a candidate in an election", which should have been used to prohibit Use specific means to influence others to vote in vain.
Excessive amendments can easily fall into the French Open
However, this amendment to the "Draft" is too broad for the definition of "public activity". It also includes free online publications that are exempt from the old provisions. This will inevitably make the public feel that it has greatly increased the number of people who fall into the law. risk.
Moreover, in contrast to the "Draft", which provides an exhaustive and detailed definition of "public activities", it simply lists the more critical "incite" behaviors that need to be considered "contents" and "the activities". The intended audience of the event” and “circumstances under which the event will be conducted”, without explaining the specific criteria of the three in detail. For example, a company boss still tells you even if he knows that the day is the polling day. If its employees sent letters requesting overtime to work and prevented them from voting, would it also be a related crime?
In order to reduce the public's misgivings, it is necessary for the authorities to clarify how the so-called activities, targets, and circumstances have contributed to "incitement."
In particular, the use of the term "incite" by the staff of the Department of Justice to regulate invalid and invalid votes does not seem to be in line with the development of the legal profession in recent years.
As pointed out in the 1994 Law Reform Commission’s "Incitement, Conspiracy, and Attempt and Other Preliminary Offences" research paper, "In the common law, inciting or inciting others to commit crimes is a crime." It is a lawful act in Hong Kong itself that the ballot is deemed invalid, so the naming of the related crime "incitement" is logically inappropriate.
In addition, the British "Major Crimes Act 2007" has changed to "encourage" or "assist" instead of "incitement" after its entry into force. The search results of the Chinese law and regulation database also showed that no documents contain the word "incitement". It is incomprehensible why the Hong Kong government still uses this term today, which only adds to the worries.
The National People's Congress passed a decision to improve Hong Kong's electoral system.
(Xinhua News Agency)
The National People’s Congress passed the “Decision on Improving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Electoral System” on March 11 this year. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier that related amendments are complicated and that several elections need to be held in the next year. It was completed as soon as possible before, and the "Draft" finally required as many as 32 laws to be amended. It is not easy for the authorities to amend and draft more than 400 articles in a short period of time.
However, it is precisely because the improvement of the local electoral system is so intensive that the Hong Kong government has even deployed staff to handle other livelihood matters in this process. Therefore, people from all walks of life expect the revised provisions to be written on important issues such as the criteria for judging crimes. To be clear enough, but at this stage, the results have not yet fully passed.
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