1,200 civil servants get ready for subsector vote-counting

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

A total of 1,200 civil servants from various Government departments have got ready for the job of counting ballot papers for the Election Committee subsector elections to be held this Sunday (July 9).

The Registration and Electoral Office has conducted eight training sessions for them in batches over the past two weeks.

The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, attended the last training session today (July 4) to make sure that electoral arrangements are in order and to thank the staff for supporting the elections.

"The counting of votes is the climax of various electoral activities. Everybody wishes to know as soon as possible who the winners are. Therefore staff dealing with the count have an important responsibility," he said.

He told the staff that they would have to handle an additional task of sorting 27 types of ballot papers this time as a result of a new polling arrangement made for the convenience of voters. This task is very time-consuming, he said.

Each voter is assigned to a polling station according to his registered residential address so that he will not have to travel a long distance to vote. Thus each polling station will serve voters from 25 subsectors and two sub-subsectors.

In the 1998 subsector elections, each polling station was designated to serve only voters belonging to one subsector.

"After different types of ballot papers are sorted, they will be delivered to the respective counting zones and fed into optical mark readers for the counting of votes obtained by individual candidates. This step will be quite fast with the help of computers," he said.

He reminded the staff of the important requirement of a fair, open and honest election. "Every step must be taken in strict accordance with our rules. Everything must be done prudently and proper records must be kept," he said.

After the close of poll at 10.30 pm on July 9, all ballot papers will be delivered to a central counting station at Exhibition Hall 1, Level 2, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai. A public area will be designated for members of the public to witness the count.

About 168,000 voters may elect 482 Election Committee members from among 723 candidates belonging to 25 subsectors and two sub-subsectors. A total of 182 candidates from nine subsectors and two sub-subsectors have been elected unopposed.

The Election Committee is made up of 664 elected members, 40 members nominated by the religious subsector and 96 ex-officio members, who are Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress and Legislative Council members. The Committee will then elect six of the 60 Legislative Council members in September.

Tuesday, July 4, 2000