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The Government Home Page is providing a full range of services and information in the run-up to the Legislative Council Election.

As soon as nominations of candidates for the Election Committee, Functional Constituencies and Geographical Constituencies started on April 9, the information was available on the Internet and is updated regularly to ensure that the public can keep abreast of the development.

"The effectiveness of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Home Page - the Government Information Centre (GIC) - in disseminating information is obvious from the Election Committee subsector elections held on April 2," a spokesman for the Information Services Department said today (Sunday).

"On that day, Internet users were able to read the hourly updated election results in minutes after they were released to the media as part of the newly implemented project which automates the uploading of press releases onto the Home Page.

"Similar round-the-clock service will be provided for the Legislative Council Election on May 24," the spokesman added.

To enhance user-friendliness, the spokesman said a special home page on the Election had been produced in GIC since February.

The dedicated page gathers different forms of government information on the Election so that people browsing the sections on the Election Committee, Functional Constituencies and Geographical Constituencies of the page can gain thorough knowledge about the Election with ease.

A full record of the events can be traced by reading press releases and speeches arranged in chronological order. In addition, it provides useful background information such as electoral arrangements, nomination forms and notes as well as guidelines on election-related activities.

A theme song specially composed for promoting public participation has also been included.

Members of the public are welcome to visit GIC at http://www.info.gov.hk where they will be guided to information on the Legislative Council Election.

The spokesman added that the efforts made to provide comprehensive and updated information on the Election were a clear indication of the Government's commitment to the effective use of the Internet in disseminating government information.

"The daily hit rate of the GIC Index page has surged from 467 in December 1995 when the home page was launched to 4,806 last month,"he added.

End/Sunday, April 19, 1998

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