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Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong Kah-kit and a written reply by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, in the Legilsative Council today (June 22):
Question:
Regarding voter registration campaigns, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective amounts of expenditure incurred in implementing voter registration campaigns in each of the past four years;
(b) of the respective numbers of voters registered through different channels in each of the past four years (list in the table below);
Number of voters Number of voters registered
Year registered online by filling in voter
via GovHK registration forms
---- ----------------- ---------------------------
2007
2008
2009
2010
(c) of the respective numbers of voter registration forms received during the period from the deadline for voter registration to the polling day in the election years concerned in the past four years (list in the table below);
Deadline Polling Number of voter
for voter Day registration
registration (B) forms received
(A) during the period
from the deadline
for voter registration
(A) to the polling day
(B)
------------ ------- ---------------------
2007
District
Council
Election
2008
Legislative
Council
Election
2010
Legislative
Council
By-election
(d) given that tenants of private rental housing are generally not keen to update their voter registration particulars, what measures the Government will adopt to encourage them to update their residential addresses and exercise their right as voters; and
(e) whether the Government will consider repealing the voter registration system, so that all eligible members of the public can exercise their right as voters directly without going through administrative formalities; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) The actual expenditure (including publicity and other operational expenses) in implementing voter registration campaigns in each of the past four years is set out at Annex A.
As there were major elections in 2007 and 2008, the actual expenditure in these years is higher than that in the other two years.
(b) The numbers of voters registered through GovHK website and filling in voter registration forms in each of the past four years are set out at Annex B.
(c) The numbers of voter registration forms received during the period from the deadline for voter registration to the polling day in the election years concerned in the past four years are set out at Annex C.
(d) In order to protect the voting rights of registered voters, the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) encourages tenants who have moved to update their residential addresses with REO through the following measures:
(i) during the voter registration campaigns, REO will remind registered voters who have moved to report their new addresses to REO in writing before the statutory deadline for change of registration particulars, through public media (e.g. newspaper, TV and radio channels);
(ii) during the voter registration campaigns, REO will write to households which have moved into new private developments to remind them to report changes in address to REO;
(iii) with the consent of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, REO will conduct data matching of the records of relevant Government departments such as the Housing Department with those of REO. For voters whose registered addresses do not match with those provided by the relevant Government departments, REO will send notification letters on change of address to these voters to update their registered addresses; and
(iv) if a person has given consent for data transfer, the Immigration Department will provide REO with information on change of address it receives through the application for smart identity card, so as to facilitate the updating of the voters' registered addresses in the electoral register.
(e) According to existing electoral legislation, eligible persons need to submit applications to REO before the statutory deadline for voter registration in a year, so that their names can be included in the register compiled in that year. The persons so registered can exercise their voting rights after the publication of the register. This arrangement can ensure that eligible persons have the rights to choose whether to be registered as voters. Based on the residential address provided by the applicants, REO will also allocate an applicant to the relevant Legislative Council geographical constituency and District Council constituency.
As this mechanism of voter registration has been effective, we consider that the existing system should continue. In recent years, the number of registered voters has been on an increasing trend. According to the Final Register published in 2010, there are more than 3.43 million registered geographical constituency electors, accounting for 73 per cent of the eligible persons. This is a record-high number.
Ends/Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:12
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