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Guidelines for Legco elections published

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

The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) today (July 10) released a new set of Guidelines on Election-related Activities in respect of the Legislative Council elections.

The guidelines will apply to all future Legislative Council elections including the next general election on September 12.

"All potential candidates should read the guidelines thoroughly before submitting their nominations or conducting electioneering activities," the commission chairman, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing said.

Nomination will run from July 22 to August 4 for the September polls. Nomination of candidate(s) for a geographical constituency and a functional constituency must have 100 and 10 subscribers respectively.

The guidelines were finalised after a 30-day public consultation exercise ended in April, during which 19 written and oral representations were received.

New legislative measures introduced to the EAC (Electoral Procedure) (Legislative Council) Regulation were also incorporated into the guidelines.

One of the major amendments is to increase the maximum imprisonment term from three to six months for the offence of taking photographs inside a polling station and for offences relating to the infringement of secrecy of votes. The maximum fine for such offences remains unchanged at $5,000.

Maximum penalty for using mobile phones inside a polling station contrary to a direction of the Presiding Officer remains the same, that is, three months jail and a $5,000 fine.

To guard against electors taking photographs inside the voting compartments, curtains in front of the voting compartments will be removed so that any such action will be discerned easily. A yellow line, however, will be marked on the floor at least one metre from the voting compartments to form a no-entry zone while the voting compartments are in use.

Most polling stations will be turned into counting stations for geographical constituency votes after the close of polls. Ballot boxes in small polling stations with less than 500 registered electors, however, will be delivered to a main counting station, where votes will be mixed before counting takes place.

Counting of functional constituency votes will be carried out in a central counting station as in the last Legislative Council election.

The commission appeals to all broadcasters to treat all candidates fairly and equally. They are cautioned that any materials, including comments, which are published for the purpose of promoting or prejudicing a candidate or candidates are treated as election advertisements, if reference could be made from the materials to identify the candidate(s) being promoted or prejudiced. The commission will refer such cases to the Broadcasting Authority for appropriate action.

Other new arrangements covered by the guidelines include a new recounting procedure for geographical constituency votes, a streamlined process for handling questionable ballot papers, and an extension of the period allowed for candidates to remove election advertisements from government sites from seven to 10 days after the election.

Copies of the guidelines are available at the Registration and Electoral Office and all District Offices of the Home Affairs Department. They can also be downloaded from the commission's website at www.gov.hk/eac.

Also present at the press conference was commission member Dr Elizabeth Shing Shiu-ching.

Ends/Saturday, July 10, 2004

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