*************************************

Nearly 2.8 million registered electors for the Legislative Council election scheduled for the coming Sunday (May 24) should have received a poll card and a voting guide by now, a spokesman for the Registration and Electoral Office said today (Tuesday).

The poll card bears the address of a designated polling station and the hours of polling. A map showing the location of the polling station and a leaflet carrying photographs, personal particulars and platforms of candidates are included in the mail.

Electors are requested to call the hotline - 2588 1212 - or fax to 2519 7596 to enquire about where to vote if they do not receive the mail by now.

Except for the 800 members of the Election Committee, every elector is assigned a polling station near his home. A total of 496 polling stations will be open for 15 hours from

7.30 am to 10.30 pm on May 24.

"Every elector should have received a commemorative card specially designed to mark the first Legislative Council election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," the spokesman said.

"After he has cast his vote at a polling station, he will be given a second commemorative card, which makes a complete set with the first card, together with a card holder," he said.

The spokesman said that voting would be simple and easy. All an elector needs to do is to bring along his identity card to the polling station.

Like the previous Legislative Council elections, an elector will be required to mark a tick next to his choice on a ballot paper.

"What is different this time is that candidates contest the election in the form of lists. An elector will choose a list of candidates instead of a candidate," he added.

As some registered electors may have to work even on Sunday, the spokesman urged their employers to allow them to vote during their working hours.

More than 123,000 of the electors are entitled to a second vote in 18 functional constituencies (FCs). They may cast their ballots at the same geographical constituency polling station. Even an authorised representative of a FC corporate elector may cast all his votes at the same polling station.

The 800 members of the Election Committee may cast all their votes at any one of the four designated polling stations in Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan.

Electors from 10 uncontested functional constituencies do not have to vote as the candidates have been declared elected as Legislative Councillors. The FCs are Heung Yee Kuk, Architectural, Surveying and Planning, Social Welfare, Tourism, Commercial (First), Commercial (Second), Industrial(First), Finance, Import and Export and Textiles and Garment.

The election will be held only for the remaining 50 seats. Twenty of them will be elected by the five geographical constituencies, 20 by the 18 functional constituencies and 10 by the Election Committee.

End/Tuesday, May 19, 1998

NNNN