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The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:

The Electoral Affairs Commission has proposed maintaining the boundaries and names of the five existing geographical constituencies to return 30 members to the Legislative Council in its general election in September 2004.

The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, said: " Of the 30 directly elected seats prescribed by the Basic Law for next year's general election, we propose six for Hong Kong Island, four for Kowloon West, five for Kowloon East, eight for New Territories West and seven for New Territories East."

The distribution of seats is in line with the Legislative Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2003, which says each geographical constituency shall have four to eight seats.

According to Government forecasts, Hong Kong will have a population of 6,957,700 by June 30, 2004. It follows that each of the 30 elected seats will cater for 231,923 people - technically known as the "population quota".

Statutory criteria require that the population in each constituency shall not deviate by more than +/-15% from the "resulting number", which is the product of the "population quota" multiplied by the number of seats in that constituency.

The following table shows that the population deviation in each of the five proposed constituencies is well within the permissible range:

  Geographical Constituency

  No. of seats     Population    Deviation from 

                                 resulting no. 

  Hong Kong Island

  6 seats          1,274,600         -8.40%

  Kowloon West

  4 seats          999,600           +7.75%

  Kowloon East

  5 seats          1,034,300         -10.81%

  New Territories West

  8 seats          2,004,300         +8.03%

  New Territories East

  7 seats          1,644,900         +1.32%

Mr Justice Woo pointed out that the commission's recommendation also complied with other demarcation criteria in the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance.

The ordinance also requires each geographical constituency to be formed by two or more contiguous whole District Council constituencies.

In addition, it says the commission shall have regard to the existing boundaries of districts, the existing boundaries of geographical constituencies, community identities, the preservation of local ties and physical features of the relevant areas.

"The commission examined the feasibility of quite a number of other options before we settled for the present proposal," Mr Justice Woo said. "Electors are now familiar with the existing constituency boundaries. Changing the delineation for the sake of change is obviously unwarranted and will only confuse them."

Mr Justice Woo stressed that political influence or advantage had no part to play at all in the commission's decision.

Calling for public comments about the proposal, he said both supporting and dissenting views were welcome.

"We will hold a public forum at our Conference Room at 2.30pm on August 7 to listen to what people have to say about it," he said.

Written representations should reach the Electoral Affairs Commission at 10/F Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai by August 13. Submissions by fax (2511 1682) or e-mail (eacenq@reo.gov.hk) are acceptable.

More details and maps are available for inspection at the Registration and Electoral Office, district offices, post offices, public housing estate offices and public libraries. They can also be viewed or downloaded at the commission's website: http://www.gov.hk/eac.

Enquiries can be made on 2827 1269.

End/Tuesday, July 15, 2003

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