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

Returning Officers have verified all the nominations for the September Legislative Council elections submitted by 156 persons. All but one of them have been ruled as valid.

A total of 36 lists of 88 candidates are standing for 24 geographical constituency (GC) seats; 48 candidates are competing for 21 functional constituency (FC) seats, and 10 candidates are contesting six seats via the Election Committee.

Nine FC candidates have been elected unopposed as Legislative Council members. The nine FCs are Heung Yee Kuk; Agriculture and Fisheries; Insurance; Commercial (first); Commercial (second); Industrial (second); Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication; Import and Export; and Textiles and Garment.

More information about the candidates is available on the web site, www.info.gov.hk/eac. Their names and their numbers as printed on ballot papers will be gazetted on Thursday, August 10.

At a briefing for the candidates and their agents, the Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, announced that 526 polling stations across Hong Kong would be open to electors on Sunday, September 10.

About 3.055 million GC electors may vote at a polling station near their home. If they are also an elector or an authorised representative of 18 ordinary FCs, they may cast that vote in the same polling station.

Four of the polling stations, located in Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and Kwai Chung, will be designated to serve Election Committee members and electors of the Transport FC. These electors may vote at any one of the four polling stations.

Mr Justice Woo reminded electors of GCs and the 18 ordinary FCs that they must use the chop bearing a "tick" provided at their polling station to mark their ballot paper. Only one tick by the chop is allowed for the GCs and the FCs except the Labour FC in which an elector is allowed three choices. "Using a pen or any other way to mark a ballot paper will invalidate the vote," he said.

For electors of the Transport FC, they are required to use a pen to write Arabic numerals in the circles against the names of the candidates in descending order of preference on their ballot paper.

For the Election Committee members, they must use a pen to shade the ovals against the names of exactly six candidates of their choice.

New arrangements will be made for the counting of votes in a bid to speed up the process. Ballot papers of the five GCs will be separately counted at five different regional counting stations:

Hong Kong Island: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai

Kowloon West: Kowloon Park Indoor Games Hall

Kowloon East: Ground Floor Plaza, Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kowloon Bay

New Territories West: Shek Kip Mei Park Indoor Games Hall

New Territories East: Hall C, Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kowloon Bay

All the ballot papers of FCs and the Election Committee will be delivered to a central counting station at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai for the count.

Candidates and their agents may monitor the entire count and members of the public are welcome to observe the count at each of the counting stations, Mr Justice Woo said.

He urged all the candidates and their campaign assistants to co-operate with the Commission and relevant authorities to make the elections fair, open and honest.

"The Commission needs the help of candidates to monitor one another. You are welcome to call our complaints hotline, 2827 7656, to bring to our attention any breaches of the rules," he said.

End/Saturday, August 5, 2000

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