In response to media enquiries today (December 20) about the arrangement of enquiry letters to electors issued by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO), a spokesman for the REO gives the following reply:

     The 2020 Voter Registration (VR) cycle will last until May 2, 2020. With a view to ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the final register, the REO has issued about 70,000 enquiry letters since December 13, 2019. The enquiry letters are issued on the basis of random sampling check.

     The REO appeals to the registered electors who have received enquiry letters to submit replies as soon as possible by the specified deadline, in order to confirm that the address concerned is their principal residential address.  In case the concerned electors do not reply by the deadline, the REO will proceed to the next step by March 2020 to include the concerned electors in the statutory inquiry. Electors who are in the statutory inquiry must reply to the REO by the statutory deadline on May 2, 2020, otherwise, they will be included in the omissions list to be published on June 1, 2020.  Electors included in the omissions list can still reply to the REO or lodge a claim before the statutory deadline on June 25, 2020, with a view to reinstate their elector status and to vote in the 2020 LegCo General Election.  

     The REO conducts various checking measures in each VR cycle to enhance the accuracy and completeness of the particulars of VR, including the above-mentioned random sampling check on registered electors; cross-matching exercise with other government departments on the registered particulars of electors; follow-up inquiries on undelivered poll cards arising from elections; cross-matching of registered residential addresses of electors with the Housing Department, Hong Kong Housing Society and Home Affairs Department; checks on residential addresses with multiple electors or multiple surnames of electors; checks on addresses with incomplete information or suspected non-residential addresses; as well as checks on electors registered at buildings already demolished or vacant buildings to be demolished.

Ends/Friday, December 20, 2019
Issued at HKT 23:30

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