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The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:
A total of 97 polling stations across Hong Kong Island opened at 7.30am this morning (December 2) for about 620,000 registered electors in the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency to cast their vote in the Legislative Council Hong Kong Island by-election.
Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Pang Kin-kee, urged electors of Hong Kong Island to exercise their right to vote as early as possible before polling ends at 10.30pm tonight.
He made the appeal this morning after visiting the polling station at Leighton Hill Community Hall in Happy Valley.
Mr Justice Pang and the other two commission members, Mr Lawrence Lok Ying-kam, SC, and Professor Andrew Chan Chi-fai, will inspect polling stations in Hong Kong Island during the day to see how electoral activities are conducted.
Eight candidates are contesting this by-election. As at 9.30am, 21,520 electors have voted, bringing the accumulative turnout rate to 3.48%.
Mr Justice Pang said, "Voting is simple. Electors should bring along their Hong Kong Identity Card to their designated polling station. They will be given a chop bearing a 'tick' to mark the ballot paper. All an elector has to do is to stamp a 'tick' in the circle next to the name of their chosen candidate on the ballot paper with the chop provided and fold the ballot paper once to conceal the marking before putting it into the ballot box."
"Do not use a pen or other means to mark or correct the ballot paper or else it will be treated as invalid. If an elector makes any mistake in marking the ballot paper, they should return it to the Presiding Officer and ask for a replacement ballot paper," he continued.
Mr Justice Pang reminded electors to read carefully their poll card to find out whether their designated polling station was different from that in the District Council Election two weeks ago.
"The majority of electors may vote at the same polling station as in the District Council Election in November. Electors may call 2891 1001 to enquire which polling station they should visit if they do not have a poll card in hand," he said.
Hourly voter turnouts and election result can be found at www.elections.gov.hk.
Complaints about the polls can be made to the hotline 2827 7251.
Ends/Sunday, December 2, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:05
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