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EAC Chairman's press standup

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The following is the transcript (English portion) of the question and answer session of the press stand-up by the Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo, after the announcement of all the results of the Legislative Council Election today (September 13):

Q: Are the long hours of vote counting within your expectation? You said the counting hours are one hour shorter when compared with that in 2000.

A: I have not estimated the counting hours, but I expect it will be quicker. There were two re-counting for the Accountancy Functional Constituency; and one re-counting for the Hong Kong Island Geographical Constituency. If we exclude these re-counting, we should have finished it two to three hours earlier.

Q: That's mean at about 9 am...(inaudible)?

A: It should have been finished at about 9am if so.

Q: With a view of such an experience, will you...

A: We will try our best to review the methodology. These will involve a number of aspects, including the design of the ballot boxes. We will suggest arrangements for the future after a full review. We will consult the public about the arrangements.

Q: The voting started yesterday...(inaudible)

A: I don't think so. There will probably be some differences between the registered data and votes counted in each election. Moreover, it is the first time vote counting being conducted at polling stations. We have to check the data very carefully before releasing them.

Q: Some candidates of the Social Welfare Functional Constituency and Accountancy Functional Constituency complained that there were differences between the number of registered voters at the polling station and the number of votes in the final outcome. Do you think it is unfair to some of the candidates?

A: The discrepancy does not affect the results. The result is based on the actual counting of the ballot papers, whereas the figures provided to the public from every polling station every hour does not as accurate as the figures arrived from the actual counting of the ballot papers.

Q: About the ballot boxes, will the design be changed next time?

A: The design and method of inserting the ballot papers will obviously be subject to a review. We consult members of the public about election arrangements every time. We will submit a report to the Chief Executive after the review, in which the ballot box issue will be handled. Any arrangements for next election will be subject to public consultation.

Q: Several former, in-coming and ex-legislators have said there were a lot of questions about how things were run during the election and a high level of review in procedure was needed. Do you agreed with that?

A: I don't understand what is a high level review. What we will be doing is to review the whole procedure, especially those involving the ballot box.

Q: Some people suggested that outside experts with experience in election arrangements could contribute...(inaudible)

A: I haven't heard about it and thought about it, but personally we will review the procedures adopted this time.

Q: In several Functional Constituencies, there were unexplained extra votes. How will you explain that? Do you expect there will be appeals and complaints about that?

A: In every election there are a lot of complaints. Some of them are brought by the candidates complaining one other, some are brought by citizens, some of them are against electoral officials, like the Registration and Electoral Office and even us. Whenever we receive complaints, we will deal with them and it is our duty to report complaints to the Chief Executive within our electoral report every time after an election. We will deal with them. As far as extra vote is concerned, I don't quite understand what they mean. If there is a discrepancy between vote counting and the voter turnout in the Functional Constituency election, if any candidates or any electors, 10 electors together, if they feel wrong with it and they are quite sure that they are right, they are entitled to present a petition to the court.

Q: Can you give a situation report on these unexplained extra votes? How many Functional Constituencies are suffered from the problem of extra votes found?

A: There is hardly any Functional Constituency suffering from this problem, I don't think so, but I heard from the news that there were two Functional Constituencies with some discrepancies about figures, and if the candidates concerned or any 10 electors concerned of the same constituency feel strongly about it, they can present a petition to the court of the first instance within two months from today.

(Please also refer to Mr Justice Woo's Chinese Q & A transcript.)

Ends/Monday, September 13, 2004

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