Police contact Facebook regarding AL election violation
CAEAL set up a mock polling station at the Election Information Centre
The city’s police authority contacted Facebook’s Asia division regarding an alleged Legislative Assembly (AL) election violation involving the social network service provider, according to the president of the Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL), Tong Hio Fong.
Yesterday, during a CAEAL press conference, Tong stated that four or five election candidates were issued a warning notice because they had been found to be paying Facebook for election propaganda services.
The propaganda commercials have already been removed from Facebook. During the press conference, Tong revealed that the committee received reports from residents about the commercials on Facebook. According to the city’s regulations, the social media business organization must pay a fine for violating election rules.
Tong reported that some election propaganda posters fell off the objects they were attached to, although he noted these incidents were later found to be unintentional.
“PSP carried out investigations at the sites, [finding that] most of the posters fell due to the weather [rain]. […] No man-made behaviors were spotted,” confirmed Tong, who pointed out that it was the police who took the initiative to inspect the sites.
CAEAL received no complaints about their posters having been deliberately taken down. Until now, the commission recorded 64 cases of election violation reports, with around 20 cases having already been forwarded to the police authority.
With respect to instances of candidate defamation, Tong stated that, “basically, the situation is good,” with only one or two reports listed.
The CAEAL president reminded the candidates to conduct their election campaigns according to the law. He repeated that some candidates have been spotted partaking in various violations, and that so far, PSP has only issued warnings to the candidates. He emphasized that from yesterday onwards, the authority will enforce the law strictly.
Except for one polling station (which is currently under maintenance but will be ready for polling on September 15), all the other polling stations are ready for the election.
Tong reminded the candidates that they can only attach publicity materials at the designated places, which include 23 fixed spots specially made for the candidates to exhibit their publicity posters.
The candidates can also use their advertisements at the other 19 official election events coming up, but they are not allowed to do so along random streets.
