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Following is the transcript of the remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, to the media after visiting a Yuen Long District Council by-election polling station set up at the Buddhist Wing Yan School in Yuen Long this morning (June 26):
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: In the Yuen Long District Council by-election today, up to 9.30 am, we have had over 200 electors coming out to vote. This is equivalent to a turn-out rate of 1.88 per cent. Relative to the 2007 District Council general election, this is a relatively lower rate. However, I wish to encourage voters who are registered in this constituency to come out today for the remaining hours available to participate in this by-election.
Furthermore, we should all bear in mind that the District Councillors elected in November this year will play an important role in the Legislative Council general election to be held in September next year. This is because we are establishing five new District Council Functional Constituency seats to be returned by 3.2 million registered voters. Therefore, for those who are eligible to vote in today¡¯s by-election, we would encourage all of them to come out and take part.
With regard to the latest statement issued by the Hong Kong Bar Association, we had issued a response. We would like to emphasise that, on the part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Hong Kong Bar Association, we hold different views regarding the proposed replacement mechanism. These views have been publicised in the last few days. On the part of the Government, we do not consider it necessary for our legal perspectives to be annunciated once again.
However, we would like to point out that under the proposed replacement mechanism, it will work according to the votes cast by electors in a general election. This is because in September 2012, henceforth all voters will cast their votes according to the list of candidates which they prefer in Geographical Constituencies and the new District Council Functional Constituency. Their votes will carry a duo effect.
Firstly, the higher the number of votes secured by a candidate list, the higher the chance of candidates becoming Members under that election. Furthermore, the higher the number of remaining votes which are secured by a candidate list, the greater the opportunity of these candidates becoming members in future under the replacement mechanism. Therefore, under the proposal, this mechanism will work according to the votes cast by electors. The electorate will have the final say.
The Hong Kong Bar Association also cited an example in which in a constituency there are only 150 voters and eventually the largest number of remaining votes is only one vote held by a particular candidate list. I would like to point out that in reality this will not be the case. Throughout the territory, we have 3.43 million registered voters. In each of our five Geographical Constituencies, there are hundreds of thousands of registered voters. Also, according to the general election of the Legislative Council in September 2008, Members who were able to win in that general election each had 30,000 to 50,000 votes. For those candidates who had the largest remaining number of votes, they all carried over 10,000 or 20,000 votes. Therefore the example cited by the Hong Kong Bar Association does not reflect what really happens on the ground.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, June 26, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:12
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