Anti-Occupy march organisers pledge to investigate ‘cash for taking part’ claims

Organisers of Sunday's march against Occupy Central say they will investigate complaints that people were paid to take part in the protest.

Media reports claimed pro-establishment groups paid some protesters hundreds of dollars each to join the march from Victoria Park to Chater Garden in Central, which the Alliance for Peace and Democracy said attracted 193,000 people. Police put the figure at 111,000.

"It would be better if these people did not show up, as they besmirched the some 190,000 people who came out truly for peace [in Hong Kong]," said the alliance's spokesman, Robert Chow Yung, when asked if the reports would damage the credibility of the march.

Some reports alleged that one group that took part - the General Association of Hong Kong Heyuan Societies - had handed out HK$380 to each marcher.

Chow said he had spoken to the association and learned that one of its subsidiaries "had carried out such acts". The alliance would investigate and consider deducting the 200 people mobilised by the subsidiary from the total turnout, he added.

But it would not for the moment investigate similar claims of payments aimed at the Hong Kong Youth Association.

Cable TV said the Youth Association arranged a bus that picked up dozens of people in Yuen Long, among them the station's undercover reporters, and gave them each a T-shirt and HK$250 on the way to the march.