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In response to the community's concern about a number of alleged mishaps in the 2004 Legislative Council election, the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) will submit a report to the Chief Executive as soon as practicable.

An EAC spokesman said the Commission had for the past fortnight been working full steam ahead on inquiries into some 40 of the complaints filed by candidates/agents or members of the public in this regard.

"We aim to submit our report to the Chief Executive well before the statutory deadline, that is three months of the conclusion of the election," he said.

The subjects of the inquiries included incidents such as using cartoon boxes to hold ballot papers in a couple of polling stations, the temporary suspension of polling in a polling station, agents asked to leave polling stations that were being converted into counting stations and the inaccessibility of a polling station to the disabled.

Noting the small size of the polling station in Ying Wa Girls' School resulting in long queues of electors, the spokesman said the EAC Chairman, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, had personally gone to the school to make alternative arrangements for more room to facilitate polling.

"We will definitely review whether the same venue should be used for polling in the future," he said.

Turning to the contingency measure to allow Presiding Officers to open ballot boxes in the presence of polling agents or witnesses and rearrange the ballots to make room for more ballots, the spokesman said this had to be done to prevent voting in polling stations from being disrupted because of a shortage of ballot boxes.

The EAC's directive to take the contingency measure was based on its power and lawful authority conferred by sections 4(b), 4(h) and 5(g) of the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance (Cap. 541).

Ends/Sunday, September 26, 2004

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