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

The doors of 100 polling stations located throughout Hong Kong are open up to 10.30 pm tonight (July 9) for voters to elect candidates representing their subsector to sit on the Election Committee.

About 168,000 voters may elect 482 Election Committee members from among 723 candidates belonging to 25 subsectors and two sub-subsectors.

"Voters will find voting much more convenient this time as a result of an improved polling arrangement. Every voter is allocated to a polling station according to his home address. No matter which subsector he belongs to, he may vote in a polling station in his home district," the Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, said during a visit to the Sunning Plaza polling station.

"Voting is simple. Just bring along your identity card to the designated polling station indicated on the poll card. Call the hotline, 2891 1001, to find out where to vote if you have lost your poll card," he said.

The Registration and Electoral Office is operating 35 lines to answer voters' enquiries up to 10.30 pm tonight when polling closes.

Each subsector or sub-subsector has seats ranging from 10 to 40 on the Election Committee. A voter may choose not more than the number of members to be elected to represent his subsector or sub-subsector.

"A voter should use a pen to shade the ovals against the names of the candidates of his choice on a ballot paper. Then put the ballot paper into an envelope and put it into a ballot box," he said.

Mr Justice Woo and the two Commission members, Mr Norman Leung Nai-pang and Dr Elizabeth Shing Shiu-ching, have a busy schedule today visiting 20 polling stations in the 18 Districts of Hong Kong to see how electoral activities are conducted. They have already voted early in the morning.

"This is Sunday. Most voters do not have to work. The best thing to do, I think, is to go to the polls in a leisurely way. Casting a vote is a right the law gives to every subsector voter. Don't give it up," he said.

Registration and Electoral Office staff are manning a complaints hotline, 2827 7656, to receive complaints about breaches of electoral guidelines issued by the Commission. The Commission will continue to receive complaints in the next 45 days.

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.

A total of 182 candidates from nine subsectors and two sub-subsectors have already been elected unopposed.

End/Sunday, July 9, 2000

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