(Arthur:Oiwan) Many of my friends run for the district election. But I have been too busy to throw myself into assisting election campaign. Not until the last two days did I have time to spend one day in Pat Heung for Hoi dick Chu; and another in Lamma Island for Damon Wong, while I was also assigned as a polling agent. I have shared two stories on Facebook after I finished my job. I read 紀曉風 "Where do the votes come up?" and on second thought do not think I have done my job seriously enough. We will have to reorganized our resources and amend the loopholes of election.

On 6th, around one o’clock I took up my shift from another polling agent called Sophie. I was told that there were two ferries carrying two hundred elders to come here to vote that morning. They all voted for Yu Lai Fun. As they were all firm with their decision, polling officers indicated the circle next to Yu Lai Fun when they were assisting them to vote. Some neighbours saw this and reminded Sophie to be monitor cautiously. She suspected that some polling officers told some foreigners to fill in the voter registration form without inspecting weather they were registered voters, which was an official procedure, so as to let them vote in the next year. She complained about this. While I was on my duty, a few elders could not find their name on the Register of Electors. They made some phone calls and realized their elector registrations were valid only in Wah Kwai Estate. Not until I inquired the local people and Damon Wong did I know the two hundred votes in the morning were all casted by the elders in Wah Fu Estate and Wah Kwai Estate.

After second though, I did find this incident very tricky. First I was amazed by how powerful Yu Lai Fun the candidate and her agents were. They had full knowledge of the information of the voters in Lamma Island, as well as those who had moved away. That is why they could arrange vehicles to take them to the ferry pier and got them into the same ferry to Yung Shue Wan, let them had breakfast and voted. Even the Election Committee did not have those information. My puzzles go on if it is a violation of the residence ordinance if the elders live in public housing, such as Wah Fu Estate and Wah Kwai Estate, but retain their elector’s registry in Lamma Island? I ask this because their elector registration information could be a proof that shows they live elsewhere.

People on Facebook even ask if this is illegal. A lot of grey areas exist. Many people forget to change the address in the registry after they move; others move their home very often. They simply use the address of their parents’. The latter is personal preference. But the former involves those who now have arranged vehicles or ferries taking them to the designated districts to vote. In the next election the election committee should emphasize that people should register the same district where they are living in. They should explain to public housing residence not to change their address in the registry, lest they may lose their eligibility for public housing.

Lamma Island is a community that consists only two thousand voters. Two to three hundred votes could hold enough sway to the election. Some journalists pointed out that each address should be scrutinized to avoid multiple registrations with resort apartments or with only one address. I agree poll inspection should be carried out not just on the election day. The register of electors should be cautiously crosschecked with local residence.

One more incident occurred. The poll station was quite small and a pub was located right in the front, where a group of people were watching a football match. The no canvasing zone was actually quite large; but a man in white T-shirt kept pushing people into the poll station. I was inside the station and therefore could not handle that. I got Sophie standing outside the station and had an eye on it. Not long after the man in white pushed people into the polling station. She made a complain to the polling staff immediately and stopped the canvassing activities in front of the polling station.

These experiences will encourage us to perform polling scrutiny better in the next election. The following are two shameful incidents written on Facebook at that night. The first involves a very old lady; the second the canvassing of a barman. Polling staff can make testify them and they handled the cases in a fair way.

First, Yu Lai Fun from DAB (Democracy According to Beijing) used a woman who was almost a hundred years old, suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and who did not know who to vote. Almost half an hour was gone but she was still not done. A retuning officer asked loudly whom the lade wanted to vote read out one by one all candidates’ name. But she still did not give any response. The returning officer asked once again if she would like to vote. She answered no. The person who had led her into the station said, ”Of course she doesn’t know how to vote as she had Alzheimer’s disease. She has a paper in hand, on which the will of her family is written.” Obviously she cannot vote at the end, but this is really shameful.

Second, The boss of the pub in front of the polling station kept on egging people to vote for DAB. Once he pushed a drunken man inside. The man shouted he needed to vote number 1. The polling staff stopped him and checked his ID card. In fact he was not an elector. He said he wanted to register, since he thought he could vote once he did so. He was declined and when he went outside he talked to the boss that it was “their” fault not to let him vote.

Last but not least, there was a political spinning that damaged the new professionalism of South China Morning Post (SCMP). It gives extensive coverage on the election day on a report by Yu Lai Fun, whose banner was written a script “I love concrete” by a thick marker and on whose face was added the toothbrush moustache. Another candidate’s banner was written a script “I split the vote”. In fact most of the background given in the content is quite neutral; but the editor decided this as smear campaign and wrote a headline “Island candidate in Hitler protest”, which alluded that Damon Wong had besmirched his opponents. And it quoted, “People think that’s inappropriate and uncalled for. It is really bad for the political process here.”

The media defines unidentified damage conduct as smear campaign. In this case the responsibility falls solely on the one whose material was not daubed and who does not have a background of League of Social Democrats, which mean Damon Wong. People who turn their stomach against politics would refuse to vote once they saw something like smear campaign. A foreign person told us during I am electioneering that what SCMP had done was very bad and would influence the will of voting of some people. Luckily he comforted me by assuring that his vote would not be moved by these kind of report. However, a lot of people who live in Lamma Island are civil servant and read SCMP. They disgusted smear campaign. They were normally the group that is most likely to cast their votes . No wonder the rumour was big that SCMP has become the English Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao.