London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

4 more arrested on suspicion of inciting boycott of Hong Kong’s Legco poll

4 more arrested on suspicion of inciting boycott of Hong Kong’s Legco poll

Meanwhile, overseas calls for a boycott continued, with fugitive activist Sunny Cheung urging voters to ‘shame the regime’ by staying home on Sunday.

Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency has arrested four more people accused of inciting others to skip Sunday’s Legislative Council poll or cast blank ballots, as overseas calls for an outright boycott continued.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Wednesday detained three men and one woman, aged 22 to 58, for allegedly breaching the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance, which was amended earlier this year to outlaw publicly “inciting another person not to vote, or to cast an invalid vote” during an election period.

If convicted, the suspects face a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a HK$200,000 (US$25,600) fine.

Authorities seized a number of mobile phones and two computers during the arrests, and the four suspects have since been released on bail, according to a spokesman for the ICAC, who did not rule out further enforcement actions.

Headquarters of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong.


Wednesday’s operation, which took the total number of people arrested for the offence to 10, came the same day that fugitive activist Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang – who is seeking asylum in the United States – urged residents to “shame the regime” by staying home on Sunday.

“On the day of the election parade carefully curated by the Chinese Community Party, Hongkongers should treat it with indifference and absenteeism to shame the regime,” Cheung wrote in a Facebook post shared by about 100 users.

The ICAC has previously issued arrest warrants for fugitive ex-lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung and a former district councillor, now settled in Australia and Britain, respectively, over social media posts urging voters to either cast invalid ballots or skip the poll altogether.

The Legco election will be the first citywide poll since Beijing revamped Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure only “patriots” held power. Mainstream opposition parties have snubbed the election, which they argue is designed to exclude dissenting voices.

The government has sought to drum up enthusiasm for the race amid predictions of low turnout and surveys showing widespread voter apathy. In an unprecedented move, the government has announced that MTR, bus and tram rides would be free on election day.

Meanwhile, in the private sector, KPMG – one of the world’s four largest professional services firms, with operations in 29 cities in mainland China – appeared to become the first major company known to have offered an extra day off to its Hong Kong staff if they vote on Sunday.

The policy was aimed at encouraging colleagues to exercise their “right and privilege to vote”, according to a leaked internal email purportedly sent out by the firm’s human resources department on Tuesday.

“In order to apply for the extra day-off, colleagues who have voted will be asked to complete a simple online application to indicate that they are eligible voters and have voted on 19 December,” it read.

The Post could not independently verify the authenticity of the email, and has approached KPMG and the government for comment on the offer.

Another member of the so-called Big Four, Deloitte, would not be following suit, though it did promote election participation internally as “a socially responsible organisation”, said Edward Au, the firm’s China southern region managing partner.

Beijing’s electoral overhaul expanded Legco membership from 70 to 90, while simultaneously reducing the number of directly elected seats from 35 to 20. Thirty seats will be returned by mostly trade-based functional constituencies, while 40 will be hand-picked by the newly empowered Election Committee, which is stacked with Beijing loyalists.

All candidates running for seats were required to first pass a vetting mechanism led by government officials and secure nominations from the Election Committee.

Perceptions that the overhaul was intended to effectively shut out opposition candidates prompted the camp to stay away from the poll, and have motivated calls for election boycotts online.

Pro-Beijing heavyweight and Election Committee member Lo Man-tuen on Wednesday made a public appeal for supporters of the pro-establishment camp to consider supporting centrist candidates to ensure diversity in the legislature.

Writing in Ming Pao, Lo said a shutout victory by the traditional pro-establishment camp would be a “trap” that would only provide fodder for critics.

“This is ‘good material’ for the Western forces hoping to attack the new electoral system for being ‘homogenous’,” said Lo, who is vice-chair of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

Separately, Barnabas Fung Wah, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, headed the first meeting of the Crisis Management Committee, in which he was briefed by representatives of the police force and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, among other departments, on plans for the polling.

Meanwhile, the city’s security minister Chris Tang Ping-keung said police would be on the alert for potential lone-wolf terrorist attacks or other possible interruptions on election day.

In an interview aired on Wednesday on RTHK TV31 programme Overview Policy, Tang pledged law enforcers would step up patrols on streets, and quick-response teams would also be deployed to deal with emergencies.

“There are several aspects of risks that we need to look at. First, there is domestic terrorism, including lone-wolf attacks … This actually did happen, not too long ago, on July 1,” said Tang, referring to a knife assault on a police officer on July 1.

A lone attacker that day had stabbed a policeman, seriously injuring the officer before plunging the knife into his chest. The assailant later died.

“There could also be interruptions at polling stations,” Tang added, citing blockages to prevent voters from entering facilities, or disturbance to those who wanted to vote.

“On election day, there will of course be security arrangements. There will be uniformed officers but we are not going to send a lot of them to stand [at the polling stations]. We shall have quick-response teams on standby.

“At some strategic locations, we shall also step up stop-and-search [operations] on suspicious persons. This is to target lone-wolf attacks. Such attacks are more difficult to prevent by means of monitoring intelligence.”

He also warned people not to engage in illegal activities, even if gatherings were termed “soft resistance”, such as calls for some to boycott the race or to besiege polling stations.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
×