Transcript by Secretary for Constitutional Affairs

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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Michael Suen, at the Legislative Council election Press Centre today (Sunday):

SCA: We have a very good turnout so far, despite the rain. But there are still many hours to go before the close of the polling stations and I would like to urge all Hong Kong people to come out and vote because this is a very important time for Hong Kong. This is the time we are electing our legislators for the first time under the SAR and I would urge all those who have not voted, to come out and vote and exercise your vote, in order to realise this concept of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong.

This morning, some parts of the northern New Territories have been affected by rain and seven polling stations were, at different stages, inaccessible to some of the voters. But the situation has improved now. But there is one polling station in particular, in Wang Chau at Yuen Long, where we have decided to make special arrangements for the voters attending at this polling station, because at the moment, as we understand it, the water is still up to chest height. And so in order to enable those people who have been assigned to this polling station to vote, we have decided to allow them to go to the next station, not far away from the Wang Chau station, in order to allow them an alternative means of voting. This is a special arrangement. We feel that we should make that arrangement in order to allow them to vote because of the fact that they are affected by flooding.

But apart from that, the rain is receding and there is little likelihood of more heavy rain in the rest of Hong Kong. In fact, we have been advised by the Observatory that the rain belt is moving away from us. At the moment, the rain belt is concentrating over Sai Kung area and is due to go eastwards away from Hong Kong.

Reporter: Mr Suen, you said that there were seven polling stations this morning where voting was disrupted because of the weather, and yet you have only made special arrangements at one of them. There will be a lot of people who were not able to vote there this morning and a lot of, say, particularly elderly people who are going to have difficulty voting now. Why did you decide to only make special arrangements at one polling station?

SCA: It is because in respect of the six other polling stations, the water has receded significantly and we have received reports that there is now no problem for them to go to vote. In fact, even during the most difficult times these polling stations are being kept open and there are people who can have access through other means because the main problem with most of these polling stations is that the main access road to the polling stations are under flooding and that has deterred some of the people from attending at those polling stations. But of course there are other means of access to these polling stations.

Reporter: So, are you satisfied then that all the voters in the area have had a chance to vote or will have a chance to vote?

SCA: They certainly had a chance to vote and there are still another seven hours to go before the close of polling. And so anyone who might not have found it possible to vote this morning, we urge them to make use of the opportunity - there are still seven hours to go.

Reporter: I know you have already kind of answered this question, in Chinese, but given the fact that the Hong Kong Observatory predicted long ago that there was going to be bad weather and very heavy rain, and given the fact that parts of the New Territories are prone to flooding, do you think that you have really acted quickly enough in implementing contingency measures?

SCA: Well, I think we have acted sufficiently quickly to respond to the emergency. But as I have said, although we know generally the areas which will be affected, but the fact is that there are so many polling stations and we need to assess the extent to which each polling station is being affected and be able to take remedial measures in response to the actual situation, and that has taken us a bit of time.

End/Sunday, May 24, 1998

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