905 valid nominations for 664 Election Committee seats

The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:

A total of 905 nominations for the Election Committee subsector elections have been verified as valid by Returning Officers of 35 subsectors, the Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, announced.

A total of 723 candidates from 26 subsectors will contest 482 seats on the Election Committee in the subsector elections on Sunday, July 9. The remaining 182 candidates from nine subsectors and two sub-subsectors have been elected unopposed as Election Committee members.

Three nominations from the health services subsector were ruled invalid because the number of subscribers was fewer than five.

Explaining electoral guidelines to candidates and agents at a briefing, Mr Justice Woo urged every candidate to join hands with the Commission and relevant authorities to make the elections fair, open and honest.

A total of 100 polling stations will be open to about 168,000 voters from 7.30 am to 10.30 pm on July 9.

He said that a new polling arrangement would be adopted to make it more convenient for voters to cast their vote. "The polling day falls on a Sunday this time, and each polling station will serve voters from different subsectors," he explained.

"Every voter will be allocated to a polling station closest to his home no matter which subsector he belongs to," he added.

In the previous subsector elections in 1998, the polling day was a working day and each polling station was designated to serve voters from a particular subsector.

At the briefing, Registration and Electoral Office staff demonstrated how votes were counted by optical mark readers. "A voter should use a pen provided at a polling station to shade the ovals against the names of the candidates of his choice on a ballot paper," he said.

The "first past the post" system of voting is adopted where the candidates obtaining the greatest number of votes and then the next greatest and so on will be elected until the seats allocated to the subsector concerned are filled. Each of the 26 subsectors is allocated seats ranging from 11 to 40.

All ballot papers will be delivered to a central counting station at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for the count. A public area will be designated at the counting station for members of the public to witness the entire count.

The Registration and Electoral Office will mail to voters a poll card, a voting guide and a leaflet containing the personal particulars of candidates and their messages to voters by the end of June.

In addition, candidates are entitled to send each voter a letter related to the elections free of postage before the end of June.

Mr Justice Woo reminded candidates that their election expenses must not exceed the statutory ceiling, which ranges from $100,000 to $480,000 depending on the size of the electorate.

He advised candidates of several rules governing election advertisements:

* Before a candidate displays an election advertisement, he must submit a declaration, two samples or photographs of the election advertisement and a copy of the written authorisation for display to the Returning Officer.

* A candidate must obtain written consent from a person or an organisation before indicating in his election advertisements that he has their support. A copy of the consent must be deposited with the Returning Officer before the advertisements are displayed.

* Publicity material containing the name or photograph of a candidate issued during the election period is treated as an election advertisement even if the content is not, on the face of it, election-related.

* Candidates who are television and radio presenters and regular columnists should suspend their usual role in a programme or contributing articles until the elections end on July 9.

The 664 elected members, together with 40 members nominated by the religious subsector and 96 ex-officio members (Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress and Legislative Council members), will form the Election Committee. The Election Committee is responsible for electing six Legislative Council members in the Legislative Council general election on September 10.

The full list of candidates is available on the web site,
http://www.eac.gov.hk.

End/Saturday, June 10, 2000