Members of the public who have signed up as electors for this year's Legislative Council elections are invited to check their registration particulars in the 1998 provisional registers, which will be published tomorrow.

Omissions lists containing the names of former electors who are no longer eligible to be included in the registers will also be published for public inspection.

"Anybody who has registered as an elector should take a look at the registers in the coming week to ensure that his name is included," the Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, told a press conference.

"This will be his last chance to make sure that he may take part in the first Legislative Council elections of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," he said.

"Members of the public will have up to next Saturday (February 21) to raise objections, make claims or request for corrections regarding any entry on the registers or the omissions lists," he added.

Cases of objections and claims will be referred to one of the eight Revising Officers, who are members of the Judiciary, for determination before February 28. Their decisions will be reflected in the final registers to be published before mid-March.

The provisional register for geographical constituencies shows that the total electorate has increased by 264,000, from 2.531 million to 2.795 million.

The figure is the result of an addition of 307,000 new electors and the deletion of 43,000 former electors who are no longer eligible to remain on the register. A total of 341,000 electors' records have been updated in this voter registration exercise, mainly involving changes of address.

"That means about 70 per cent of the potential electors may go to the polls on May 24," he said.

The distribution of electors in the five geographical constituencies is:

Hong Kong Island              596,219

Kowloon West                  411,429

Kowloon East                  483,949

New Territories West          708,420

New Territories East          595,233

According to the provisional register for the 28 functional constituencies, the electorate totals 139,000, representing about 60 per cent of the potential electors. About 127,000 of them are individuals while the remaining 12,000 are corporate electors. About 10,000 authorised representatives have been appointed.

As for the 35 Election Committee subsectors, more than 139,000 people have registered as voters. This represents a registration rate of about 57 per cent. Among them, about 127,000 are individuals and the remaining 12,000 are corporate voters. More than 10,000 authorised representatives have been appointed.

The provisional register for the geographical constituencies is available for inspection at:

* the Registration and Electoral Office, 10th floor, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai; and

* 18 District Offices (that part of the register relevant to the district)

The provisional registers for the functional constituencies and the Election Committee subsectors are placed at:

* The Registration and Electoral Office, 10th floor, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, and 10th floor, Guardian House, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai; and

* Five District Offices in Central and Western, Yau Tsim Mong, Kwun Tong, Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan.

Any person who wishes to inspect the registers is required to fill in a form and show his identity card. A registered elector may call hotline 2891 1001 or make enquiries via fax (2891 1180) to check his own registration particulars.

Objections or claims must be lodged by February 21 in a specified form in person at the office of the Electoral Registration Officer, 10th floor, Harbour Centre, Wan Chai, or 10th floor, Guardian House, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai.

"Using any information in the registers for non-election related purposes or any misuse is an offence punishable with a maximum fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for six months," Mr Justice Woo said.