Register With Data Of 8,000 Voters Goes Missing

Election authorities have confirmed that a register containing information of about 8,000 voters has gone missing.

Responding to media enquries, the Registration and Electoral Office says the register is from a polling station in Kwai Tsing district in the New Territories West constituency. It contained personal information, such as names, addresses and identity card numbers from the 2016 Legco election.

While the missing register is from the 2016 Legco election, the matter was only reported to the Privacy Commissioner on Thursday night. However officials say so far there is nothing to suggest that the data has been leaked.

According to the law all election related documents must be kept for half a year from the polling day, and be destroyed afterwards, unless there's a court order concerning a election petition or a criminal investigation.

The Registration and Electoral Office office said as they are working with a law enforcement agency on an ongoing investigation, other registers relating to the 2016 Legco poll are still being kept.

A spokesman for the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said it was gravely concerned by the incident and had ordered the Registration and Electoral Office to notify the Privacy Commissioner, and also demanded a report on the incident.

It's not the first time officials have lost personal information of voters. After the Chief Executive election in 2017, authorities said a laptop containing the data of the city's 3.7 million voters was stolen at the AsiaWorld-Expo.

Last updated: 2019-04-06 HKT 02:10