Hong Kong police raid office of pro-democracy camp primary election co-organisers PORI; seize PCs

Authored by hongkongfp.com and submitted by Acrzyguy
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Hong Kong police have raided the Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) office in Wong Chuk Hang. The polling organisation is a co-organiser of this weekend’s primary legislative election for the pro-democracy camp.

HKFP_Live: Hong Kong police have raided the Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) office in Wong Chuk Hang. The polling organisation is a co-organiser of this weekend's primary legislative election for the pro-democracy camp. Posted by Hong Kong Free Press HKFP on Friday, 10 July 2020

Officers entered the premises on Friday evening and took away PCs, according to Stand News. The officers said they had a warrant, accusing the organisation of dishonest use of a computer. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.

HKFP noted up to a dozen staff still inside the premises as plainclothes officers moved around. A police van remained outside the building.

The primaries are intended to select pro-democracy candidates to run in September’s legislative election. They were organised by law professor Benny Tai, ex-lawmaker Au Nok-hin, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and political group Power for Democracy. There are set to be 250 polling stations.

Following the raid, Chung told the press that data relating to the primaries was stored separately on PCs that were not taken away by the force. He said some PCs at the research centre were hacked recently, though he was unsure who accessed the devices.

On Thursday, Hong Kong’s constitutional affairs minister warned that the upcoming primary election may violate the new Beijing-imposed national security law. “Those who have organised, planned or participated in the primary election should be wary and avoid carelessly violating the law,” Erick Tsang said.

State-run newspaper Wen Wei Po reported on Thursday that a netizen named “Tony Mike” had accused PORI of failing to erase interviewees’ personal data collected from past surveys, claiming that the data had been leaked. Chung denied the claims of a data leak and has said all personal data is erased after six months.

In a poll released by PORI on Friday, it said that 61 per cent of those surveyed believed that Hong Kong was no longer a free city, whilst 32 per cent believed it still was.

boycottchinazi on July 10th, 2020 at 13:25 UTC »

The government claimed a primary election of the territory's legislation council (i.e. Parliament) constitute a violation of National Security and may lead to life imprisonment.

boycottchinazi on July 10th, 2020 at 13:20 UTC »

PORI, formerly known as HKUPOP, is a public opinion research centre led by Robert Chung. It is one of the largest and most long-lasting polling organisation in Hong Kong. Raiding its office is a watershed in Hong Kong's deterioration.

Expensive_Pop on July 10th, 2020 at 12:52 UTC »

SS: In short, the citizen of Hong Kong tried to hold a pre-election to decide who are the candidates for joining the election, but the Hong Kong Police just raid and robbed the computer in attempt to stop the pre-election.