Vow to block plan for HK 'outsider' votes

Pro-democracy legislators aim to block bills that will allow Hongkongers living in the Greater Bay Area to vote in elections here.

The administration is looking into measures that aid around 500,000 Hong Kong people living in Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing to cast ballots for the Legislative Council and district council elections.

National People's Congress standing committee member Tam Yiu-chung told Sing Tao Daily, The Standard's sister paper, of the proposed setting up of polling stations in the Greater Bay Area with Hong Kong electoral staff.

But Democratic Party lawmaker Wu Chi-wai said yesterday that such an arrangement would change the definition of a qualified voter.

Under the legislative ordinance, only people who ordinarily reside in Hong Kong and whose residential address for voter registration is in the SAR are eligible to vote.

"This is the basic requirement to be an eligible voter," Wu noted.

But the proposal, Wu added, is that anyone who holds a permanent Hong Kong ID card can be defined as a qualified voter.

Wu also said it would be difficult for the Registration and Electoral Office to vet qualifications of those in the Greater Bay Area, adding that such an arrangement could lead to disputes over legal jurisdiction.

"We can all see that the laws of Hong Kong do not cover the mainland," he said.

If the SAR administration tried to present the electoral law as a special case, Wu added, "we may see a situation in which laws of the mainland will be applied to Hong Kong as well."

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said such a voting arrangement would lead to unfair results.

"Some pro-establishment lawmakers suggested allowing Greater Bay Area Hongkongers to pick an electoral district according to the residential address of relatives in Hong Kong," he said.

Reviewing the district elections last year, most electoral districts had less than 1,000 ballots, Lam said.

"But considering around 500,000 Hongkongers are living in the Greater Bay Area, let's say around 300,000 votes cast go to around 300 electoral districts.

"Each electoral district would then receive 1,000 ballots more. This would completely rewrite the election results."

Lam also said vote-rigging activities are bound to occur in the mainland.

Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang said the arrangement would fundamentally change the basic structure of fair and semi-democratic principles of elections in Hong Kong.

He asked: "How are candidates going to lobby for votes from the Greater Bay Area? And how will they be able to send election manifestos to them if there is no freedom of expression there?"

Civic Party lawmaker Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu pointed out such a system would not be fair to Hongkongers overseas.

"There are over 200,000 Hong Kong citizens right now living in Canada," he noted. "So what about them?

"If so, such voting rights should also be expanded to Canada."