************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:
The Electoral Affairs Commission today (May 21) released for public consultation its provisional recommendations on the boundaries and names of geographical constituencies for the 2016 Legislative Council (LegCo) Election. The consultation period will last until June 19.
The Commission's Chairman, Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, said at a press conference today, "The Commission recommends retaining the existing boundaries of the five geographical constituencies and allocating the 35 seats of LegCo according to the projected population in each of the constituencies.
"The Commission proposes to allocate six seats each for Hong Kong Island and Kowloon West, five seats for Kowloon East, and nine seats each for New Territories West and New Territories East.
"Compared with the existing seat distribution, a seat will be transferred from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon West constituency due to the change in population."
The provisional recommendations were drawn up by the Commission in accordance with the provisions of the Legislative Council Ordinance, the statutory criteria under the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance and a set of long-established working principles.
According to the Legislative Council Ordinance, the number of geographical constituencies for the 2016 LegCo General Election will remain at five. It also stipulates that a total of 35 Members are to be returned for the five geographical constituencies and the number of Members to be returned for each geographical constituency is to be a number which is not less than five nor greater than nine.
According to the population projections made by an inter-departmental Ad Hoc Subgroup led by the Planning Department, Hong Kong will have a total population of 7 370 500 as at June 30, 2016. Accordingly, on average, in terms of population, each geographical constituency seat will correspond to 210 586 people (known as the "population quota").
The Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance provides that the population in each geographical constituency should not exceed or fall short by more than 15 per cent of the "resulting number", which is obtained by multiplying the "population quota" with the number of seats in that geographical constituency.
Delineation of the geographical constituencies should also take into consideration the existing boundaries of districts, the existing boundaries of geographical constituencies, the community identities, the preservation of local ties and physical features such as the size, shape, accessibility and development of the relevant areas.
"The Commission notes that the existing geographical constituency boundaries have been adopted since the first term of LegCo in 1998 and members of the public are generally well accustomed to them.
"Therefore, in the absence of any obvious and fundamental change in circumstances justifying alteration of the boundaries, the Commission recommends that the existing boundaries of the five geographical constituencies should be maintained," Mr Justice Fung said.
"Before adopting this recommendation, the Commission has explored the possibility of re-delineating the boundaries of the five geographical constituencies with a view to achieving a more even distribution in population.
"However, given that the existing five geographical constituencies have come into existence since 1998 and there has not been a major shift in the territorial population distribution since the last LegCo general election, any suggestion to re-delineate their boundaries would definitely risk upsetting the long-established identities and community ties within each of the geographical constituencies and cause unnecessary confusion to electors in the coming election.
"Therefore, having carefully weighed the pros and cons, the Commission considers that the option to re-delineate the boundaries simply to achieve a more even population distribution across the geographical constituencies would not be appropriate and should not be recommended," Mr Justice Fung said.
Regarding allocation of seats, the Commission has followed the established process of delineation to allocate the 35 seats among the five proposed geographical constituencies having regard to the projected population with a view to ensuring that the population in each proposed geographical constituency is as near as practicable to the "resulting number" as required by law.
Before the conclusion of the press conference, Mr Justice Fung reminded electors who had received the inquiry letters issued by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) requesting them to confirm or update their registered addresses to reply by the statutory deadline of July 2.
"The inquiry process aims to help electors confirm or update their registered addresses. Electors have the legal and civic responsibilities to reply to the REO. Otherwise, they will be included in the omissions list and will not be able to vote in the District Council Election in November.
"In accordance with the electoral law, the inquiry letters were sent by registered mail, bearing on the envelope the wording 'Important documents inside. Please respond promptly'. If the elector is not at home on the day when the mail is delivered to him or her, the postman will leave a notification card. The elector concerned should collect the mail at the post office with the card as soon as possible. Otherwise, the post office will usually return the mail to the REO after two weeks," Mr Justice Fung said.
Members of the public are welcome to send written representations to the Commission's Secretariat by post to 10/F, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai. Submissions by fax (2511 1682) or email (eacenq@reo.gov.hk) are also welcome. All representations must reach the Commission by June 19. Late representations will not be considered.
To gather views on the provisional recommendations, the Commission will hold a public forum from 7pm to 9pm on June 11 at Lai Chi Kok Community Hall, 863 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon.
Maps showing the proposed boundaries and names of geographical constituencies can be viewed on the Commission's website (www.eac.gov.hk), or inspected at District Offices, the REO, post offices, management offices of public housing estates, and major and district public libraries.
For enquiries, please call 2827 1269.
Ends/Thursday, May 21, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:56
NNNN
