Ted Hui Reported To Police Over New Snatching Claim

The Legislative Council's secretariat reported Democratic Party councillor Ted Hui to the police on Thursday, after pro-government lawmakers accused him of removing votes from a ballot box.

The pro-establishment camp said Hui had snatched the ballots during the election of a development panel chairperson.

Tony Tse, who was presiding over the voting process, claimed that Hui had taken three votes out of the box.

The pro-Beijing legislator agreed with the convenor of the pro-government camp, Martin Liao, that the secretariat ought to file a report to the police.

Officials later confirmed that they had made a report to the force, with the consent of Legco president Andrew Leung.

After the alleged incident, Tse distributed the voting papers once again and Lo Wai-kwok from the Business and Professionals Alliance was elected chair of the panel. But there was not enough time left for the panel to elect a deputy.

In response, Hui said it was laughable for the pro-government camp to get the police involved in what he said was a Legco procedural problem, adding that he's trying his best to contest what he said were restrictions to the nomination of candidates for panel chairs.

He accused the Beijing-loyalist camp of trying to suppress struggles within the council under the National Security Law.

Hui says government supporters could act even more recklessly in future controversies, when issues such as allowing Hongkongers on the mainland to vote and building a massive artificial island off Lantau come up for debate.

The pro-government camp are hoping to grab the leadership positions of all panels to enable them to take control of meetings for the rest of the legislature's extended term, which Beijing ordered after the SAR government scrapped last month's Legco elections.

In 2019, Hui was found guilty at Eastern Court of common assault and two other offences for snatching a female Security Bureau officer's mobile phone and running off with it into a men's toilet.

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