The Electoral Affairs Commission would endeavour to make things easier and more convenient for electors, candidates and enforcement authorities to follow while ensuring that elections are conducted fairly, openly and honestly.
The commitment is reiterated in a report compiled by the Commission to sum up how it conducted and supervised the District Councils election held on November 28, 1999.
The report was submitted to the Chief Executive on February 28, 2000, within three months of the conclusion of the election as required under the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance.
The Commission reviewed every aspect of the electoral arrangements covering voter registration, delineation of constituencies, electoral guidelines, the handling of complaints, polling and the counting of votes, a spokesman for the Commission said.
"In the review, it had considered the feedback from candidates and polling and counting staff as well as the views of complainants and Government departments involved in the electoral arrangements," the spokesman said.
"The Commission finds the arrangements generally satisfactory, but considers that there is still room for improvement to provide a better service to electors and candidates," he said.
Major recommendations for improvements outlined in the report are:
The final register of electors should be published as close to the polling day as possible so that the most up-to-date addresses of electors are recorded, and they can be allocated to the constituency where they live and to a nearby polling station.
Polling stations should be made more convenient and accessible to electors, in particular the elderly and those not in good health. Coloured cardboard cards should be put up inside polling stations to direct electors to the right desk to collect their ballot papers. Electors should be allowed to bring children into a polling station so long as they do not disturb or cause inconvenience to other electors.
The process of delivering ballot boxes to counting stations and the count should be speeded up.
The Commission has already announced in February that in the coming Legislative Council elections in September, geographical constituency votes will be counted at five regional counting stations, and functional constituency and the Election Committee votes at one central counting station.
There should be better co-ordination among departments concerned in designating public sites for candidates to display election advertisements.
Official introductory leaflets in respect of uncontested constituencies should carry a conspicuous message to remind electors not to attend a polling station to vote.
The Commission recommends that arrangements proved effective should be retained in future elections. Examples are:
Chops bearing the mark of a "tick" would continue to be used for future elections. Polling staff should be reminded to remove the caps of the chops before giving them to electors.
The identity card number and sex of an elector are not shown on published registers of electors; only an elector's name and address are displayed for public inspection in order to further protect personal data.
In order to deal with complaints more efficiently, each of the four vetting groups formed under the auspices of the Commission's Complaints Committee will handle complaints on its own. The entire Committee does not have to meet to discuss each and every complaint case.
The Commission handled a total of 975 complaints, 87 of which were found substantiated or partially substantiated. It issued 67 warnings and two reprimands - most of them related to breaches of rules on the display of election advertisements and electioneering on private premises.
In addition, the other three complaint avenues dealt with 2,917 cases altogether - 1,561 complaints handled by Returning Officers, 820 by the Police and 536 by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Recommendations for improving the electoral guidelines have been incorporated into the Proposed Guidelines on Election-related Activities in respect of the 2000 Legislative Council Elections published in February for public consultation.
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