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

The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) welcomes the decision by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to set up an Independent Committee of Experts to review the management, planning and conduct of elections.

The EAC Chairman, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, said today (November 10) that the EAC would be pleased to work with the committee.

He said his commission had submitted an interim report on the 2004 Legislative Council election to the Chief Executive.

He said: "We consider it necessary and appropriate to submit an interim report to the Chief Executive to address certain issues of concern to the public."

"In the report, we have identified a number of administrative and planning errors that were made on polling day," Mr Justice Woo said.

Despite the problems and inadequacies, he said the outcome of the investigations conducted by the EAC confirmed that the openness, fairness and honesty of the election was not, in any way, jeopardised.

"Nor was the integrity of the election compromised," he added.

Major issues that are covered in the interim report include:

* reasons for insufficient supply of ballot boxes and the adoption of various contingency measures, including opening of sealed ballot boxes to repack ballot papers and the use of cardboard boxes as ballot boxes during the poll;

* legality of the emergency measures taken;

* discrepancies between voter turnout figures and the number of ballot papers counted in four functional constituencies;

* eviction or exclusion of candidates or their agents from polling stations; and

* use of polling stations by disabled persons.

Mr Justice Woo said the commission and the Registration and Electoral Office must take the responsibility for the problems and inadequacies relating to the conduct of this election.

On behalf of the commission, he offered sincere apology for the confusion and inconvenience caused to the public, the electorate, the candidates and their agents.

The EAC will continue its investigation into the uncompleted complaint cases as well as other issues such as the failure of the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) resulting in the delay in announcing the election results. More detailed findings will be included in the final report to be submitted to the Chief Executive later.

The interim report has been uploaded to the EAC website (www.gov.hk/eac). Members of the public may also visit the Registration and Electoral Office and District Offices later to collect printed copies.

Ends/Wednesday, November 10, 2004

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