A pro-Beijing district councillor has said that a “ballot box” seen inside his office is a training prop to explain to local residents that they can cast two votes in Sunday’s Legislative Council election.
A photo of Cheung Pui-kong’s local office showed a blue box with black characters reading: “Ballot Box Geographical Constituency Election (Kowloon East)”. Since the photo was posted online on Tuesday, it has been shared almost 1,000 times.
Voters can cast votes in blue ballot boxes for five different geographical constituencies in Sunday’s election, according to their registered location of residence.
Cheung, a Kwun Tong district councillor for the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said in response to comments online: “I have always been open and honest.”
He then demonstrated in a Facebook live video the use of the blue box, and another white box, which is for the District Council (Second) functional constituency seat, by placing mock ballot papers featuring his party’s candidates faces into the slots.
He said his party’s team applied to the authorities for permission to use the props.
The real ballot boxes prepared by the Electoral Affairs Commission are the same colours, but are different in design to Cheung’s boxes.
The full list of candidates running across districts and constituencies can be viewed here.
