The Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union (FAU) has condemned “impersonators” who attempted to induce its members to vote for a pro-Beijing candidate in Sunday’s Legislative Council by-election.
The traditionally pro-democracy union said in a Facebook statement on Sunday that many of its members received telephone calls, asking them to vote for a specific pro-Beijing candidate. The caller claimed to be calling on behalf of the union.
“We severely condemn the actions of impersonators calling our members,” said the over 7,000-member-strong union.
Dora Lai, the Union’s vice-chair, told Apple Daily that FAU members were told to vote for New People’s Party candidate Judy Chan. She condemned the impersonator as “shameless” and added: “the scariest thing is that they know our members’ phone numbers.”
The union said: “we must take absolute responsibility for the protection of our members’ privacy. If we find that our database has been hacked, we will call the police and take legal action.”
The Hong Kong Island candidate’s office denied any association with the phone calls. “The incident has nothing to do with [Chan’s] team, and we condemn the illegal acts of the impersonators.”
“Hong Kong is a society based on the rule of law. We hope that the election occurs in a fair and transparent environment.”
The union urged members to look into each candidate’s platform and prior achievements before casting their vote. It added: “Our union has always had a clear stance: We only support those who speak out for Hong Kong democracy and justice.”
Sunday’s legislative by-election seeks to fill the seats of four lawmakers disqualified over their oath-taking. The vacant seats are in Kowloon West, Hong Kong Island, New Territories East and the small-circle architectural functional constituency.
See also: HKFP Live: Hong Kong Legislative By-election 2018
The by-election has been marked by a relatively lower turnout than previous polls. As of 2:30pm, the total turnout in the four constituencies was 18.63 percent.
In contrast, a turnout of 22.90 percent was recorded at 2:30pm during the September 2016 legislative elections held city-wide. A turnout of 19.23 percent was recorded at the same time during the the New Territories East by-election in February that year.
The other candidates in the Hong Kong Island constituency are Au Nok-hin, Edward Yum, and Ng Dick-hay.
Not-for-profit, run by journalists and completely independent. Contribute to our critical month-long HK$1m Funding Drive, help safeguard our independence and secure our operations for another year. Read how carefully we spend every cent in our Annual/Transparency Report.
