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

     The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC), Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, made the following appeal at the Central Counting Station of the 2016 Legislative Council General Election this morning (September 5):
 
     After the close of poll of the 2016 Legislative Council General Election last night (September 4), most of the polling stations were converted to counting stations for the counting of votes of geographical constituencies. Among these polling cum counting stations which totalled 560 in the five geographical constituencies, nearly half of them are schools, followed by venues of the Home Affairs Department and Leisure and Cultural Services Department, churches, and social service/youth/elderly centres of non-government organisations. In particular, I would like to mention that there are 32 kindergartens, 6 post offices and 5 government clinics among them.
      
     Under normal circumstances, vote count at counting stations is usually complete within hours, enabling Presiding Officers to return the venues to restore their original functions at about 6am on Monday. However, as vote count of geographical constituencies started later than expected, more time is still needed to complete the count. The venues cannot be returned at 6am as planned. That said, we hope and endeavour to complete the count and return the venues by noon.
      
     I appeal to the managements and users of the affected venues to appreciate that the EAC has the responsibility to ensure that this important public election is conducted openly, fairly and honestly. I also hope that the community would bear with the inconvenience resulting from not being able to return the venues on time to restore their original functions. The election, an extremely solemn event, has no room for mistakes in the count. I hope the venue managements would allow the counting staff to continue to use the counting stations to complete the count as soon as possible. The staff of the relevant venues may as a result need to take some contingent measures and users of the venues would need to bear with some inconvenience, but I trust that the smooth conduct of the election is a hope that we share.

Ends/Monday, September 5, 2016
Issued at HKT 8:01

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