Legislators declare ‘smear’ campaigns off-limits

Legislators urged the Electoral Commission of the Legislative Assembly Election to establish a mechanism to prevent smear campaigns during this year’s legislator elections.
Meeting the Commission to provide opinions of the year’s electoral guidelines, directly elected legislator José Maria Pereira Coutinho perceived it was important for the Commission to provide guidelines for the local press in reporting the election in order to prevent candidates being bad-mouthed during the campaign. 
Indirectly elected legislator Ella Lei Cheng I also stressed the importance of the related guidelines. She pointed out many false reports and fake information was released during the course of previous elections. “But [the Electoral Commission] could not resolve the issue. Or it’s because they thought the information would not have any impact on the election,” she said.
Meanwhile, directly elected legislator Melinda Chan Mei Yi questioned how the Commission will handle online false or smear reports if the publishers are not based in Macau.
Legislator Leong Veng Chai noted the unfairness that appeared in local media in which certain candidates are being reported on in the news. He said that the media in Hong Kong would report the news of all candidates.
The Commission, which solely sought to collect opinions from the incumbent legislators yesterday, did not respond to their enquiries or opinions during the session.
 
Hard to declare
On the other hand, several legislators expressed during the session that it would be difficult for candidates to follow the declaration system announced last week by the Electoral Commission.
Mak Soi Kun said that it is hard to know about one’s relations with certain associations or groups. “Normally when we are being invited to a certain event, the invitation won’t state that you are attending the event as an Honorary President [of the group],” he said.
Candidates for this year’s Legislative Assembly election are required to declare in advance their participation in third-party events held 15 days prior to or on Election Day when such events involve the distribution of gifts or other benefits. They also need to declare their participation in these events even if the events have nothing to do with the election.
 
Promotion
Meanwhile, Ella Lei indicated to the Commission that they should provide clearer guidelines for candidates’ promotional activities. “Due to the advancement of online technology […] how to differentiate personal sharing or official promotion?” asked the unionist legislator.
Legislator Wong Kit Cheng also pointed out that there are certain difficulties in preventing illegal promotion during the cooling-off period prior to or on Election Day, indicating that posts on social platform such as Facebook can reappear once viewers click “like” or are re-shared.
In addition, legislator Song Pek Kei perceives it would be hard for current legislators who wish to be re-elected to avoid collusion between their current ads and that of their promotion campaign for the election.
She opined that it would be unreasonable for these legislators to drop these ads on their current work to stay in line with the electoral regulations.