Elections2021 | CAEAL receives four complaints, two already referred for investigation

The Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) has confirmed that it has received four complaints concerning alleged electoral irregularities since the election campaign started, the president of CAEAL, Tong Hio Fong, said yesterday in a media briefing after a meeting of the commission.
“Since the campaign period started, we received a total of four complaints. Two of them have already been forwarded for investigation from the respective entities. The other two we received today; we are still processing and checking the complaints to see what kind of follow-up we will do,” Tong said, ensuring that all complaints will follow the legal procedures.
Later, in response to media questions, Tong added that one of the complaints was referred to the Commission Against Corruption to investigate alleged electoral corruption, while another case, which Tong said might involve “irregular [campaign] acts on the internet,” was referred to the Judiciary Police. Tong added that the two new complaints concern the display of campaign posters.
The CAEAL president refused to disclose which lists are the subject of the complaints, explaining that to publish that information during the campaign period, and before the investigation determined the legality of the actions in question, “might influence the voting direction” of the public.
Nevertheless, he revealed that the four cases concern four different lists running in the Legislative Assembly elections.

Private institutions not bound by the same rules
Questioned about private schools, that were allegedly taking advantage of the start of the academic year to endorse and campaign for particular lists, the CAEAL president remarked that private institutions are not obliged to remain impartial and independent as public ones are.
“These duties of impartiality and independence do not apply to private [institutions]. They are exempt from [the rule requiring that they] refrain from showing support or campaigning during the election campaign period,” Tong explained.

Protest votes are not illegal
Reporters also questioned Tong about rumors circulating on the internet claiming that voters who cast protest votes are acting illegally. Tong explained, “it is up to each voter to decide for which list to vote, or even to not vote for any of the lists or even to abstain from voting. None of these [actions] are even legally punishable because the vote is completely anonymous and we have no way to know who voted in a certain way.”
Protest voting is common in different electoral systems as a way of expressing dissatisfaction with the system or candidates running. It can occur in various forms, such as “blank ballots,” with no markings on them; “null ballots,” which do not result in a valid vote because the ballot was filled out incompletely or incorrectly; and “spoiled ballots,” which have been defaced, crossed-out, or marked in such a way that they become ineligible.
Generally, the last method is the one which most clearly indicates the occurrence of a protest vote.