Two jailed for trying to bribe people to vote DAB

Two women were on Wednesday sentenced to eight months in prison for trying to bribe people to vote for the DAB’s Vincent Cheng in a 2018 Legco by-election.

Deng Yi-mei, 42, and Wong Wai-ha, 52, had earlier been convicted by West Kowloon Magistracy of taking part in a conspiracy to “engage in corrupt conduct by offering an advantage to others”.

Wong used to be a part-time assistant to the chairwoman of the pro-Beijing party, Starry Lee. She and Deng both did volunteer work at a resident organisation in Hoi Lai Estate in Cheung Sha Wan.

In sentencing the pair, deputy magistrate Peter Hui said neither had shown remorse about offering “gift bags” to a number of people for them to vote for Vincent Cheng, who went on to win the by-election in the Kowloon West constituency.

Hui said a jail sentence was warranted because the by-election mattered not only to people in the constituency but the entire city, adding that a light sentence would undermine the electoral system and its credibility.

But he said he had deducted one month each from the sentences in light of the pair’s clean record and community service in the past.

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