Opening remarks by EAC Chairman at press conference on independent investigation report on REO's loss of Final Register of Electors (with photo/video)
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Following is the English translation of the opening remarks by the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) Chairman, Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, at the press conference today (July 24) on the independent investigation report on the loss of the marked Final Register of Electors (FR) of the 2016 Legislative Council General Election by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO):
Thank you for attending the press conference today. Together with EAC member Mr Arthur Luk, SC, we will give an account of the investigation report on the loss of the FR of the 2016 Legislative Council General Election by the REO.
The REO confirmed on April 9 the loss of the FR of the polling station located at SKH Tsing Yi Estate Ho Chak Wan Primary School in Kwai Tsing District in the 2016 Legislative Council General Election. The marked FR contains the name, sex, address and Hong Kong identity card number for about 8 000 electors assigned to that polling station. The Register also shows the number and types of of ballot papers each elector may be issued and whether the elector had collected his/her ballot papers, but it does not show the choices of the elector made on the votes.
In view of the seriousness of the incident, the EAC decided to launch a comprehensive investigation and review of the incident to find out the underlying facts and identify the problems relating to the electoral arrangements as well as overall management of the REO with a view to recommending improvement measures. At present, the government has an established mechanism in handling the conduct and discipline of the government officers and all suspected conduct and disciplinary matters of government officers should be handled under this mechanism. Therefore, it is outside the scope of the EAC's review to investigate and determine the integrity or personal responsibility of individual officers.
The investigation has been completed. The full report has been uploaded to the EAC website (www.eac.hk) for public information, and provided to the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau for reference. I thank the EAC members Mr Luk and Professor Fanny Cheung for their endeavours to investigate the incident and prepare this report.
Since the full investigation report has been uploaded, I will now focus on the findings of the investigations and areas for improvement for the REO.
Ends/Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Issued at HKT 16:32
Issued at HKT 16:32
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EAC press conference on independent investigation report on REO's loss of Register of Electors