*************************************************
The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, together with the Election Ambassador, Mr Louis Yuen, visited a mock polling station set up for the 2012 Legislative Council Election at Leighton Hill Community Hall this afternoon (September 6). Following is a transcript of the remarks made by Mr Tam in response to media questions after the visit:
Reporter: Mr Tam, a couple of questions. The first one is, I know this is not the first mock polling station in Hong Kong. Could I know whether the Government has received any complaints from voters who have tried out the mock polling station in Mei Foo?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: You mean the mock polling station? Not to my knowledge so far. I have not checked with the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) yet about the operation of the four mock polling stations. But what I have read from newspaper reports this morning is that there have been some arrangements by different political parties and different district organisations to mobilise their neighbours or their friends or the members of their organisations going to the four mock polling stations to try out the polling procedures. There has been quite positive feedback. After trying out, they found the procedures quite simple to follow and easy to do so. Therefore, I would take this opportunity today to encourage other voters who want to try out at the mock polling stations to do so before 8pm on Saturday.
Reporter: So are you confident that the election will go smoothly this Sunday?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: We have been conducting elections since the late 1980s. So far we have conducted each and every election in a fair, open and honest manner, and I think Hong Kong has a good reputation on that. I am confident that not only the Government ourselves, but also the general public at large, have already created a very good culture to observe all the legal and procedural requirements to have, as I said, an honest, fair and equal-opportunity election principle that we have followed so far over the years.
Reporter: Last question. What has the Government done to tackle the vote-rigging concern?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: As you know, and as I have mentioned to another reporter just now, since November last year, because of the concerns over the so-called vote-rigging incidents since the last District Council elections, the Government has introduced a number of administrative measures. We have conducted a public consultation as well on ways to prevent vote-rigging. After a series of administrative measures, we have successfully taken out more than 210,000 voters from the final register. I believe that out of those 210,000 voters who have their names taken out from the final register, most of them are not residing in that particular address any more. Part of that is a result of a comparison with the registers kept by the Housing Department, the Housing Authority and the Housing Society. As a result of the series of measures that I mentioned, I believe the final register now is more updated and more accurate. But this is not the end of the exercise. I believe the REO would continue not only to act on complaints, but would also continue to do checking on the final register in the months ahead to make sure that before we have the next general election in 2015 or the District Council elections, the register would be kept up to date all the time.
(Please also refer to the Chinese transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, September 6, 2012
Issued at HKT 19:21
NNNN
Windows Media format
Flash format