Hong Kong | Unofficial CE referendum censored by university

HK chief executive candidates Carrie Lam (center), John Tsang (left) and Woo Kwok-hing attend a debate on Tuesday

Staff at Hong Kong Polytechnic University prevented a poll from being conducted on students’ preference for the next chief executive of Hong Kong, despite the fact that it has been held at the site on two previous occasions.

Students wanted to establish a polling station for a mock Chief Executive election.

According a South China Morning Post report citing Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai, staff at the institution prevented volunteers from setting up the polling station.

“The school said that students did not have the right to use the space,” he told the newspaper.

He added that he didn’t understand the university’s reaction given a similar poll has been held there twice before.

“We also organized the same event in 2012 and 2014 and it was peaceful and completely legal. There is no way to tell if the cancellation had any political motivations behind it or even political persecution […] but the school should come forward with a proper explanation,” said Tai.

“It’s typical,” said Scott Chiang, the president of New Macau Association (ANM), who has encountered similar prohibitions in Macau. “Academia in Hong Kong is growing more similar to that of Macau… with similar results.”

“This reflects the general trend of universities [in Macau and Hong Kong] becoming less tolerant of freedom of speech. What they are doing is incredible and it makes them less credible in the ‘civilized’ world,” he said.

Indeed, Chiang has faced similar experiences in the past.

ANM was one of three groups that organized a civil referendum on the Macau Chief Executive in 2014. The unofficial referendum caused significant  controversy, leading to the arrest of activist Jason Chao for violating personal data protection laws and prompting the MSAR government to brand the activity “illegal” and “invalid”.

He was also part of a group of students that once tried to hold a Tiananmen Square vigil at the University of Macau (UM), but authorities at the institution had prevented the event from taking place.

“A group of students at the UM tried to hold a memorial of the June Fourth Incident, but we failed to get the venue [booked] because UM said that there was no space available,” he said.