Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested seven people and issued warrants for two overseas activists for protesting the city's District Council elections, in which only candidates approved by the government as "patriots" were allowed to stand.
Officers from the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, which enforces electoral law, made the arrests and issued the warrants for “inciting another person not to vote, or to cast an invalid vote,” with six out of the seven detained on Dec. 10, the day of the poll, according to London-based rights group Amnesty International.
Three are members of the opposition League of Social Democrats, who were on their way to protest outside Chief Executive John Lee’s polling site, Amnesty International said, while the others were targeted for social media posts, including reposting comments from the two people abroad.
The Commission said it has charged a woman with "incitement" after she shared a post calling on voters to boycott the election, while a court issued a warrant for former pro-democracy district councilor Leos Lee, who is now based in democratic Taiwan.
Since rewriting the electoral rulebook to allow only “patriots” to stand in 2021, the government has banned calls for boycotts of elections, and criminalized the use of blank or spoiled ballots as a form of protest.
“ICAC reminds the public that inciting others to cast invalid votes at an election may contravene the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance,” the Commission said. “The maximum penalty for the offense is three years imprisonment and a fine of HK$200,000.”
It called on the public not to “engage in illegal appeals” or repost any “unlawful content.”
Veteran social activist Koo Sze-yiu, also known as “Long Beard,” told the West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court that he had planned to take a coffin to the Electoral Registration Office ahead of the poll to protest the lack of opposition candidates, but was arrested by national security police before he could set off.
Koo, 77, a veteran protester who has been jailed 12 times, pleaded not guilty to one count of “attempting or preparing to commit an act with seditious intent” on Monday, and was remanded in custody pending a bail application review later in the month.
‘A constructive District Council’
Meanwhile, a couple in their 40s were arrested for “inciting others” to tick more than the required number of boxes, spoiling their vote, the Commission said in a statement on its website.
The Commission also said it had obtained a warrant for the arrest of Taiwan-based former District Councilor Leos Lee after he called for a boycott of the “patriots only” elections, which offered no opposition candidates – only those vetted and pre-approved by several Beijing-backed committees, including the national security police.
“The ICAC investigation revealed that the online post reposted by the arrestee was originally published by disqualified and former District Councillor Leos Lee Man-ho on his personal social media page during the election period,” it said.
“The [Election Ordinance] has extraterritorial effect and applies to all conduct concerning an election, be it engaged in within Hong Kong or elsewhere,” it added.
The Dec. 10 poll saw a record low turnout of just over 27% in the first election since the rules were changed.
The last District Council election four years ago saw a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates and record turnout that was widely seen as a ringing public endorsement of the 2019 protest movement.
Hong Kong chief executive John Lee defended the Dec. 10 turnout, saying that the 1.2 million who voted clearly have faith in the new system, which will be less “destructive” with no opposition councilors in the mix.
“The outcome means a constructive District Council, rather than what used to be a destructive one,” Lee said, accusing pro-democracy councilors of having “reacted against” the government.
“The outcome is District Council members who will be monitored for their performance to ensure that they do well, rather than previously, some District Council members pursued their own political interests, sabotaged the system, and reacted against the governance of the Hong Kong Government or the Central Government,” he said.
Blank ballots and spoiled ballots
Lee said the government would set up a monitoring system to ensure that the newly elected councilors “take care of the people’s interests rather than those in the past taking care of their own political interests and sometimes acting as agents of foreign forces.”
The government has blamed several waves of pro-democracy protests in recent years on " foreign forces" trying to instigate a democratic revolution in Hong Kong.
Poon Chi-sheng, a retired senior scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said on Friday he had submitted a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Council over the arrests.
“We have witnessed a clampdown on dissent since the introduction of Hong Kong’s National Security Law that has left many opposition activists in jail or exile,” Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for China Sarah Brooks said.
“People in Hong Kong and elsewhere have the right to express critical views of government policies, including the revamped electoral system in the city,” she said.
“These actions by the authorities appear to infringe on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. All those arrested must be released from detention with the charges against them dropped," Brooks said, calling on the government to protect people’s right to protest.
Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said the government could target people for not voting at all in future, in a bid to improve turnout figures.
“There are three things they are going after: not voting, blank ballots and spoiled ballots,” Sang said. “But only going after spoiled ballots isn’t a good option.”
"They will need to go after non-voters too, because a lot of Hong Kongers deal with this situation by lying flat, because they know it's pointless."
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie .