The Hong Kong Fanling Magistrates’ Courts imposed on Monday a suspended sentence for Man Wing Fung. Fung pleaded guilty to engaging in illegal conduct to incite another person not to vote by activity in public during the election period, contrary to section 27 of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance, and a two-month imprisonment sentence, with a suspension of 18 months was imposed.

According to a local media report, Fung reposted a post from overseas commentator Martin Oei post, who alleged that the District Council election was a fake election and called for his audience not to vote in order to reduce the voting rate. The judge accepted that Fung’s post had limited dissemination since his posts received no likes or shares. Together with his clear criminal record and timely guilty plea, the judge suspended the jail sentence for 18 months.

The District Council election took place on December 10, 2023. It was the first District Council election held since the overhaul carried out by the Legislative Council in July 2023. This change reduced the number of seats that could be directly voted on, with the rest of the seats being appointed by the Chief Executive, or coming from prior appointments. Before the overhaul, all members were directly elected in each district, while after the overhaul, only 18.7 percent of members were elected by the District Council geographical constituency (DCGC) electors.

The DCGC election component recorded a voters-turnout rate of 27.54 percent, which is the lowest since the handover. On the other hand, the DCC election recorded a voting rate of 96.92 percent. The Chief Executive said that the election was a “high-quality election that met the objectives of being conducted in a fair, just, clean, safe and orderly manner.”

The Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has previously issued warrants for political commentators who incite others not to vote.

In the last election held in 2019, the opposition camp won 85 percent of the seats with a historically high voting rate of 71 percent. The Hong Kong government contended that the overhaul would improve district governance by giving top priority to national security, fully implementing the principle of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong’ and fully practising executive-led governance.