Hong Kong police raid pollster working with democracy movement

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Police in Hong Kong have raided a polling body working with the city's democracy movement just before opposition parties hold a primary for an upcoming legislative election.

Police searched the offices of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute on Friday evening (July 10) and seized its computers, said Au Nok-hin, one of the organisers of the unofficial primary. The police had a warrant and did not make any arrests, Au said.

The institute is a widely cited pollster helping the pro-democracy movement with the primary, which a top government official has said may violate Beijing's new national security law for the city.

A police spokesman said officers from the cyber-security crime bureau conducted the search after receiving complaints from members of the public about leaked information, including that of police officers.

Primary organisers are hoping to get at least 170,000 people to take part in the vote on Saturday and Sunday and select candidates from each district to run in September's Legislative Council election.

While the opposition hopes to capture a majority in the legislature, the new security law has compounded risks that the Beijing-backed government will disqualify pro-democracy candidates to keep them from winning enough seats.

The opposition hopes to ride a decisive victory in last November's district council elections to secure a majority that would give it the power to block Chief Executive Carrie Lam's agenda - and even theoretically force her to resign by rejecting her budget proposals.

Secretary for mainland and constitutional affairs Erick Tsang on Thursday suggested that participation in the primary could run afoul of the law. If convicted by the courts, violators would be barred from seeking or holding public office for an unspecified period.

Another top Hong Kong official last month advocated for the invalidation of candidates who expressed opposition towards the legislation, which is raising questions about the city's autonomy from China.

Tsang said that planning and participating in primaries could violate the law's articles of secession, subversion and collusion, as well as its Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.

Though democrats refuted the government's remarks and continued canvassing support for the primary, they also worry that the authorities' suggestions of illegality - and a warning that district council offices shouldn't be used as primary polling stations - would dampen voter turnout over the weekend.

"Surely that's our worry, whether the new national security law will deter people from coming out to participate in a legally organised and lawful activity," legal scholar and organiser Benny Tai said at a briefing earlier this week. He argued that the primary was not an act of "secession" or "collusion" because it didn't have an agenda to split the country and wasn't sourcing funds externally.

Hong Kong, which is seeing a spike in locally transmitted coronavirus cases, has also reimposed social distancing restrictions that go into effect on Saturday and could dissuade residents from coming out to vote.

Pan-democrat organisers held media briefings in the past week to bolster public support and appeal for funds to cover expenses, but as of Friday had achieved only half their month long crowd-funding goal of HK$3.5 million (S$628,000).

Candidates - including prominent activist Joshua Wong - have set up street booths in their respective districts in a last-ditch effort to secure votes ahead of the primary.

If the total voting turnout is lower than the goal of 170,000, the camp would have to regroup and discuss who to put on the ballot, Tai said.

Democrats had braced themselves for further disqualifications even before the law was handed down on the last day of June, as Lam's government and its supporters criticised activists by name for a range of actions and political views that could put potential candidates in jeopardy.

The government has blocked nine candidates from running over their support for Hong Kong independence and self-determination since 2016, when it first took the then unprecedented step of banning politicians from running for Legco due to their political views.

"Authorities want to use the rule of fear to suppress any different views and exactly how we can counteract the rule of fear is by doing the things we believe to be right," Tai said. "The more people coming out to vote, it will give more legitimacy to the whole process."