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| Lee won the one-man race for CE, but not without mistakes |
John Lee Ka-chiu's "election" to become Hong Kong's chief executive had many issues.
For one he was the only person running, and he still had to go through the rigmarole of electioneering. Not going out on the hustings pressing the flesh with the general public, but the over 1,200 in the election committee -- whose members he approved as the then chief secretary.
Then Lee was caught violating the election rules.
His campaign ran three advertisements on his Facebook page between April 13 and 18, in which three public figures, including Olympic medallist and table tennis coach Li Ching, Cantopop singer Alex Fong Lik-sun endorsed Lee.
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| Lee failed to follow the rules when |
In June Lee asked the High Court to exempt him from liability for failing to follow the Electoral Procedure, and today he was handed the judgment -- Madam Justice Queeny Au Yeung Kwai-yue accepted his fault was "purely out of inadvertence in the midst of heavy workload, tight time frames, limited manpower and lack of communication".
She noted his electioneering team had overlooked only three forms, whereas about 800 similar documents had been published on his online election platform before the discovery of the breach.
"This is not a case where someone turned a blind eye to legal requirements," the judge said.
"The non-compliance was caused by inadvertence. The inadvertence was not gross as to call in doubt the good faith of Mr Lee or [his] campaign office. The remedy to the non-compliance was prompt. The delay in uploading was a relatively short one. There was no bad faith shown."
It would have been awkward for the Chief Executive if he was handed a more serious punishment! God forbid he would have jail time or have to do hours of community service.
Though many would probably appreciate having him in an orange jumpsuit sweeping sidewalks or folding envelopes....
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