Five regional centres to count LegCo geographical constituency votes

The five geographical constituencies for the Legislative Council election on September 10 will each set up a regional counting station to count their respective ballot papers and announce election results.

The Electoral Affairs Commission made the decision following a public consultation exercise where two options were put forward with the aim of speeding up the counting of ballots.

Five written submissions were received. The Legislative Council Panel on Constitutional Affairs and the Wong Tai Sin District Council expressed their views. Both options have their supporters.

Announcing the decision at a public forum on proposed electoral guidelines, the Commission Chairman, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, said the Commission had decided to shelve Option (2) of conducting the count at polling stations after considering all the arguments and examining the practical details of implementing the options.

"The Commission finds it premature to do the count at 500 polling stations because of two practical problems that cannot be satisfactorily solved for the time being. We have to adopt Option (1) of setting up five regional counting stations although the speed of count is slower," he said.

The determination of the validity of questionable ballots is one of the problems. "If ballots are counted at polling stations, candidates may have difficulties in fielding sufficient agents to 100 different places to monitor the count and they may harbour a feeling of unfairness," he said.

Under Option (1), all questionable ballots in each geographical constituency will be handled by one Returning Officer who has a legal adviser by his side. There is no question about consistent determinations.

Under Option (2), the job will be done by 100 Presiding Officers in each constituency, who can only obtain legal advice through communication equipment. Although they can be intensively trained, candidates may not be convinced that consistent decisions can be made by such a large number of officers.

The second problem concerns candidates' requests for a recount. It is an established practice that candidates can make such a request if they consider the votes too close.

If candidates are to make this request after results from 100 counting stations are added up to arrive at a final result, all counting stations have to be kept open until there is no further request for a recount. A recount is time-consuming and makes Option (2) lose its attraction of speed. There is also a practical problem as most polling stations will have to be handed back for their normal use very early on Monday morning, the day following polling day.

Candidates, especially those who do not have sufficient manpower to supervise the count in 100 places, may feel greatly aggrieved if they are not allowed to make a request for recount. That would create doubts about the openness and fairness of the election.

"The Commission shall not compromise the principle of fairness and openness in the slightest. An election must be credible in the eyes of the public. If all candidates and their agents are able to witness the entire count, they will feel that the election is indeed fair, open and honest," he said.

"It is more viable to conduct counting at five regional counting stations in terms of coordination and management control too," he said.

The vote-counting arrangements in respect of functional constituencies and the Election Committee will be the same as in 1998. All ballot papers will be counted at a central counting station.

End/Wednesday, February 23, 2000