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The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:
The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, today (September 8) called on registered electors to vote in the 2012 Legislative Council Election tomorrow.
Mr Justice Fung said after his visit to the Central Counting Station at the AsiaWorld-Expo on Lantau today that most of the preparatory work for the election is nearing completion and that staff members would continue to focus on their work to ensure that the poll and vote count tomorrow would be carried out smoothly.
He thanked colleagues for their hard work and appealed to electors to come out to cast their votes.
"With the introduction of the District Council (second) functional constituency, of about 3,466,000 registered geographical constituency (GC) electors, about 3,220,000 electors can cast one vote each in their respective GC and the District Council (second) functional constituency," he said.
"I believe that electors know about the 'one-person-two-votes' arrangement, which has been publicised through various channels.
"Voting is simple. What all electors need to do is to bring their identity document to the designated polling station specified on their poll card, where they will be issued with a GC ballot paper and a District Council (second) functional constituency ballot paper. Electors should choose one candidate list from each of the ballot papers by using the chop provided to stamp a tick in the circle next to the chosen list, and fold the ballot papers inward along the dotted line once before putting the GC ballot paper with the blue pattern on the back into the blue ballot box and the District Council (second) functional constituency ballot paper, whose back is mainly white, into the white ballot box," Mr Justice Fung said.
"As each elector will have two votes, the waiting time at the polling stations may be longer than in previous elections. I appeal for electors' understanding and patience," he added.
Mr Justice Fung also introduced the arrangements for the vote count.
"Once the poll closes, most polling stations will be converted into counting stations for the GC votes. Ballot boxes for all functional constituencies, including the District Council (second) functional constituency, will be delivered to the Central Counting Station where the counting of votes will take place," he said.
"We have arranged sufficient manpower to ensure the efficient management of the polling stations and the counting process.
"In this election, about 22,000 staff members will participate in the polling and counting work, of which about 3,000 will help with the vote count at the Central Counting Station. Different training programmes were provided for staff members working in different fields in recent months," Mr Justice Fung said.
In addition to the Central Counting Station, there is also a media centre at the AsiaWorld-Expo, where all the election results will be announced by the Returning Officers. An area containing about 1,000 seats has been reserved for members of the public to watch the vote count and announcement of results. Admission from 11pm will be arranged on a first come, first served basis.
For enquiries, please call the election hotline on 2891 1001.
Ends/Saturday, September 8, 2012
Issued at HKT 14:48
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