The Electoral Affairs Commission has gone halfway through its tasks preparing for the first Legislative Council elections of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The only thing left to be done by the Commission before the elections is overseeing the nominations of candidates, and also their election campaigns, the Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, said.

The Commission has finished delineating geographical constituencies and its recommendations have been endorsed by the Chief Executive in Council and tabled at the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC).

Two sets of regulations have been made for a voter registration exercise, resulting in the publication of provisional registers of electors and voters for public inspection. More than 180 claims regarding entries on the registers have been lodged.

"We are awaiting the decisions of the Revising Officers. The successful appeals will be reflected in the final registers to be published before mid-March," he said in a lunch speech to the Rotary Club of Peninsula.

Another regulation made by the Commission containing statutory provisions for electoral arrangements is being vetted by the PLC. "We expect that the vetting will be completed within the week. We shall issue guidelines to explain in simple language the various aspects of the electoral law and arrangements," he said.

This is a more transparent and logical approach as compared with past practice, he said. The Commission made the regulation and guidelines after carefully considering the views expressed during a public consultation exercise last year and after the scrutiny by the PLC.

"All public views considered reasonable and practicable have been adopted and reflected in the regulation," he said.

The Commission has appointed four Nominations Advisory Committees to give legal advice to prospective candidates if they have doubts about their eligibility to run for the April or May elections.

They may seek advice from now up to the start of the nomination period, i.e. up to March 12 for subsector elections, and up to April 8 for the general election.

Turning to arrangements on the polling day, Mr Justice Woo said that a combined polling arrangement would be adopted. "A voter in the subsector elections or an elector in the general elections may cast all his votes in one polling station."

All electors, except the 800 members of the Election Committee, may cast all their votes at a polling station near their homes on May 24, he said.

Commenting on suggestions that candidates' party names or logos be printed on ballot papers, Mr Justice Woo said that it was undesirable because there was no exclusivity in team or party names and the move was unfair to independent candidates.

If there are more than one independent candidate, allowing all of them to describe themselves on ballot papers as "independent" will confuse electors.

Similarly, the inclusion of candidates' photographs on the ballot papers is impracticable, given the large number of candidates involved in the list voting arrangement, and the tight time frame.

"We may face a dire consequence of having the election annulled if there is any mistake in matching the photograph of one of the numerous candidates against his name on a ballot paper. This is a consequence we can ill afford," he said.

"Further, photographs too small will not help electors. Large photographs on the other hand will make the ballot paper too large to manage," he added.

The Commission will adopt alternatives that can help electors identify candidates, such as displaying enlarged copies of candidates' introductory leaflets outside a polling station or placing the leaflets in an album in the polling stations.

Mr Justice Woo appealed to the audience to participate in the elections. "This is a worthwhile exercise, for your views can be expressed on the Legislative Council through the councillor whom you have elected."

"It would also show the world that you, as business people, are not apathetic towards public affairs, but rather do care about Hong Kong," he said.