Amended regulations to improve LegCo electoral arrangements

The Electoral Affairs Commission has made amendments to the regulations to make improvements in the procedures for conducting the Election Committee subsector elections on July 9 and the Legislative Council general election on September 10.

Some of the amendments are necessary to fit in with the amended Legislative Council Ordinance and the new Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.

The Electoral Affairs Commission (Electoral Procedure) (Legislative Council) (Amendment) Regulation 2000 will be gazetted on Friday, March 17 and tabled in the Legislative Council on March 29.

"One of the main amendments provides for a new arrangement to count geographical constituency votes at five separate counting stations instead of at one central counting station," a spokesman for the Commission said.

The ballot papers for each of the five geographical constituencies will be delivered from about 100 polling stations to a regional counting station. The votes for functional constituencies and the Election Committee will be counted at one central counting station as before," he said.
Another amendment stipulates that electors of geographical constituencies and 24 ordinary functional constituencies will be given a chop bearing the mark of a "tick" at a polling station to mark ballot papers.

"The chop has proved a more uniform and convenient means to mark a ballot paper than a pen when it was introduced for the first time in the District Councils election last year," the spokesman said.

The regulation also empowers Presiding Officers to admit a child accompanying an elector into a polling station provided that the child does not disturb or cause inconvenience to other electors.

"This arrangement should be welcome by electors who have children in their care," he said.

Other major amendments cover the following arrangements:

* The Chief Electoral Officer may allocate to an elector an alternative polling station, in addition to or in lieu of his designated polling station, in an emergency such as flooding.

* Electors of the four special functional constituencies - Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance and Transport - can cast their votes including their geographical constituency votes at any one of the polling stations designated for the Election Committee election. Polling stations designated for geographical constituencies will serve electors of ordinary functional constituencies as in the 1998 election.

* A candidate must deposit with the Returning Officer a copy of the written consent of support before the display of election advertisements implying that he is backed by a person or an organisation.

* Candidates and their agents may conduct door-to-door canvassing on the storeys above or below street level in a building within a no canvassing zone if electors are not obstructed and no loud-hailers are used. However, in order to keep the passage to a polling station clear, canvassing is banned altogether in a building that houses a polling station.

Before the regulations are made, the Commission consulted the public on vote-counting arrangements proposed in a consultation paper and on electoral matters set out in the Proposed Guidelines for the 2000 Legislative Council elections.

End/Thursday, March 16, 2000