|
Address by Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing 11 May 1998
| ||
|
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured to be invited to address such a distinguished gathering of accountants on electoral procedures for the coming Legislative Council general election. Who says Hong Kong people are not interested in the election? At least such a large group of professionals care about the election. In fact you have every reason to boast of your profession's participation in public affairs. More than 9,900 accountants out of an estimated electorate of 12,200 have registered themselves as electors in the Accountancy Functional Constituency. Your voter registration rate of 81.2 per cent ranks among the highest in the 28 functional constituencies. I have every confidence that you will fulfil your duty and exercise your voting right to the full on May 24, which is a big day for Hong Kong people. On that day, legislators will be elected to form the first Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Before going into details of the voting methods, I wish to make clear several points about the role of the Electoral Affairs Commission, which I chair. The Commission was not responsible for the design of the electoral system, which was defined by the Legislative Council Ordinance. Neither would it comment on issues on or bordering on politics. It is an independent, apolitical and impartial body with three members, including myself, appointed by the Chief Executive to supervise elections in Hong Kong. It makes arrangements to ensure that elections are conducted openly, fairly and honestly. We are working in accordance with the law to make sure that every elector has an opportunity to take part in the election and has fair access to the views of all candidates. We are also doing everything possible to help candidates understand and abide by the rules of the game, and to give every candidate a fair and equal opportunity to compete.
We have completed a number of jobs over the past seven months, just to name a few - the delineation of geographical constituencies, the registration of electors, the publication of guidelines on election-related activities and the conduct of the subsector elections on April 2 to form the 800-member Election Committee. We are now occupied in finalising arrangements for the general election, monitoring canvassing activities and handling election-related complaints.
The 60 members of the first HKSAR Legislative Council will be elected in three different ways, 20 by five geographical constituencies; 30 by 28 functional constituencies and 10 by the 800-member Election Committee. You may be aware that 10 candidates from uncontested functional constituencies have already been declared elected as Legislative Councillors. That means, the election will be held only for the remaining 50 seats.
Of the 20 members to be returned from the five geographical constituencies, four will be from Hong Kong Island; while Kowloon East and Kowloon West will each return three, and New Territories East and New Territories West will each return five. The proportional representation system, or to be exact, a list voting system, will be adopted for the first time. Don't be scared off by the name of the system, which may sound a bit unfamiliar to many people. It's not complicated at all. Like the previous Legislative Council elections, all an elector would have to do is to mark a tick next to his choice on a ballot paper. It's as simple as that. What's new this time round is that candidates contest the election in the form of lists. If there is more than one candidate on a list, they have to rank themselves in order of priority. An elector will choose a list of candidates instead of a candidate. The counting of votes is very simple. Say, if 500,000 valid votes are cast in a five-seat constituency, every list that obtains 100,000 of the votes will get a seat. Any remaining seat will be given to the list with the largest number of remainder votes.
Close to 2.8 million people in Hong Kong will have one vote to choose a list of their choice in the constituency where they live. You, as professional accountants, are among the 140,000 functional constituency electors who have two votes. Your second vote enables you to choose a legislator to represent your own profession. Three candidates have put their names forward to represent you. I understand that they will present their platforms in a short while. I am pleased that the Hong Kong Society of Accountants has arranged such a forum for its members to get to know all the three candidates. It's important that every candidate has a fair and equal opportunity to introduce himself and express his views to his constituents. Casting your functional constituency vote is also simple. The system is first past the post. Just mark a tick next to the circle opposite the name of the candidate of your choice. To safeguard the secrecy of your vote, an envelope will be given to you to contain the ballot paper, which should first be folded after it has been marked.
The convenience of electors is a prime concern to us. Every one of you will be assigned a polling station near your home. You will have to visit only one polling station to cast your two votes. Even if you are an authorised representative of a corporate elector of a functional constituency, you may cast all your votes at the same polling station. 496 polling stations on both sides of the harbour will be open from 7.30 am to 10.30 pm on May 24. You may visit your polling station to cast your vote any time you like during the 15 hours.
Each and every one of you who have registered as an elector will receive a poll card, a sketch map showing the location of your polling station and a voting guide this week. These documents will remind you when, where and how to vote. A leaflet containing photographs, personal particulars and platforms of the candidates will also be included in the mail. If you do not receive the materials by May 17, you are welcome to call the hotline - 2891 1001 to make enquiries.
After polling closes, all the ballot boxes from the 496 polling stations will be delivered to the central counting station at Exhibition Hall 1 of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for the counting of votes. If you are interested in seeing how your vote is counted and the announcement of the winners, you are welcome to observe the counting process at the public seating area of the counting station.
To commemorate this first election of the Legislative Council of the HKSAR, the Commission will present to each elector in a geographical constituency a set of two beautifully designed commemorative cards. You will receive the first one along with the poll card, and the second one after you have cast your vote at your polling station. But of course you don't need these cards to lure you to the polling station. I am sure you will be guided by your civic-mindedness and conscience to cast your vote to choose a list of candidates from your geographical constituency and a candidate from your functional constituency to represent you in the Legislative Council. Thank you.
| ||
   | ||