Huang Yaoming arrested︱Election rally singing is cheating? Ye Guoqian: "Singer" identity is the most important

Singer Huang Yaoming was arrested by the ICAC this morning (2nd) on suspicion of violating the "Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance" and is now granted bail.

According to the ICAC press release, Huang Yaoming participated in a gala evening to support the candidate Ou Nuo Xuan in the 2018 Legislative Council Hong Kong Island by-election on March 3, during which he sang two songs and provided "entertainment" for the other person to entice the other person. Vote for Ou Nuoxuan in the election.

Singing activities are very common in the past election activities of different parties. There is no lack of singing in the election activities of the establishment. This arrest has attracted the attention of the outside world whether similar links are also illegal.

Ye Guoqian, a DAB conference affairs consultant and a member of the Executive Council who has participated in election coordination for many times, said that singing is indeed a common part of election activities, but that the key lies in the identity of the singer and the songs sung, especially Huang Yaoming is a singer, and the songs are also It has commercial value and publicly supports a certain candidate in the event, which will inevitably attract suspicion in the law.

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Huang Yaoming sang two songs in a rally on March 3, 2018, and publicly appealed to the participants to vote for Ou Nuoxuan.

(Screenshot of a fragment of Ou Nuoxuan's fb page)

Li Jiaren once sang "Xiao Ming Goes to Guangzhou" to help Liang Meifen

Looking at the footage of the rally, Huang Yaoming sang two songs "A Forbidden Fruit Every Day" and "It's My Party" during the event. After the singing, he publicly stated: "March 11th, constituency Nuo Xuan!" According to the ICAC According to reports, Ou Nuoxuan's social platform page shared the short video of the rally on March 4, 2018, including Huang Yaoming's performance and his appeal to those present at the rally.

Ou Nuoxuan declared the relevant video clip and the post announcing that Huang Yaoming would perform at the rally as his election advertisement.

However, the reporter checked the information and found that in the past campaign activities of the establishment, guests were often invited to sing. For example, in the district promotion campaign of the 2007 District Council elections, the DAB had invited the then Vice Chairman Su Jinliang and Jiang Liyun to appear as guests. Play and sing" "I Only Care About You", "devoted to you", "Strong" 3 songs; in the 2015 district council election, after the Pakatan Rakyat Liang Meifen once asked the pediatrician Li Jiaren to sing the modified version of "Xiao Ming goes to Guangzhou" ".

As a recent example, Chen Kaixin, the former political assistant of the Food and Health Bureau who participated in the Kowloon West by-election in November 2018, also had traditional lion dance gongs and drums in the election campaign, which was strictly speaking "entertainment".

Ye Guoqian.

(Profile picture)

Ye Guoqian: The singer is a "singer" and the song has commercial value

Ye Guoqian told the reporter of "Hong Kong 01" that based on his past experience in coordinating election activities with the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, inviting singers in campaigns is indeed at risk of breaking the law, so he always avoids suspicion and will not find people active in the entertainment industry on the spot. Performing, "I don't even know how to perform "volunteer nature". You have to count money (election expenses)."

He believes that whether there are legal risks in the event, the key lies in the identity of the singer and whether the content of the performance has commercial value.

If so, the event may be an "entertainment service": "Just as if you get me to come on stage to sing a few words, of course it’s not a "performance", it’s just for fun, but if you get a singer to sing on stage, it may be a show." concert"."

Tang Jiahua: Legally it is a "concert"

Senior Counsel Tang Jiahua, a member of the Executive Council, said that whether the singing activity violates the law depends on the intention of the singer. It is clear from the online footage that Huang Yaoming publicly called for support for a certain candidate after singing the song. Therefore, it is legally a "singing". "Meetings" are also "election activities." According to the law, election expenses should be reported. This is considered to be the basic common sense of election laws.

However, he estimated that the person involved may not fully declare the expenses of the event, or the actual expenses of the event may exceed the upper limit: "To prepare a concert, the actual expenses will be several million, to say nothing. The upper limit of the expenses of the Legislative Council's geographical constituencies is also more than one hundred. Ten thousand to two million or so, so it’s easy to "pop"."

Huang Yaoming arrested for election fraud This Thursday, he was brought up to the court in the early morning of August 2 to update IG Huang Yaoming was accused of singing at the Ou Nuoxuan rallying conference. The ICAC sued two people for fraud in the Legislative Council by-election. 2018 Legislative Council By-election

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