Voters to follow proper procedures to vote in Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections (with photos)
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The 2016 Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections will be held on Sunday (December 11). The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, called on voters to follow proper voting procedures.
Mr Justice Fung visited a mock polling station at the Leighton Hill Community Hall in Happy Valley this afternoon (December 7). He reminded voters to take their Hong Kong Identity Card to the polling station specified on the poll card to vote.
"Apart from the Hong Kong Identity Card, voters can also produce their Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport for ascertaining their identity. If voters are only able to produce a government document that carries their full name and photo, such as the Senior Citizen Card issued by the Social Welfare Department, they must also produce a photocopy of their Hong Kong Identity Card.
"Voters should use the black pen provided at the polling station to shade the oval opposite the name of each chosen candidate on the ballot paper when voting. The marked ballot paper should then be put into the envelope provided at the polling station before putting it into the ballot box as directed by the arrow on the envelope.
"Voters should vote for no more than the prescribed number of seats in the relevant subsector/sub-subsector. Otherwise the ballot paper will become invalid and will not be counted. The maximum number of candidates that can be voted for in the subsector/sub-subsector concerned will be indicated clearly at the top of the ballot paper.
"Because of the considerable number of candidates, it is in principle alright for voters to bring along a piece of paper listing the names or numbers of the candidates of their choice for easy reference when marking the ballot papers. Nevertheless, voters must not show the paper to other people inside the polling station and they must also take the paper with them when leaving the polling station. Otherwise, the voters concerned may violate the law.
"The introduction booklets on candidates printed by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) will be displayed at all polling stations for reference by voters," said Mr Justice Fung.
Four mock polling stations will open from noon to 8pm from tomorrow until Saturday (December 8 to 10) for voters to familiarise themselves with the voting procedures. They will be set up at the Leighton Hill Community Hall in Happy Valley, the Henry G Leong Yaumatei Community Centre, Tuen Mun Tseng Choi Street Community Hall and Tai Po Community Centre.
Mr Justice Fung also reminded voters to safeguard the secrecy of votes.
"Voters should mark their ballot papers inside a voting compartment. If necessary, a voter may ask the Presiding Officer or his/her deputy to mark the ballot paper on the voter's behalf in the presence of a member of the polling staff as witness," he said.
It is an offence for any voter to disturb others, use electronic devices for communication, take photographs, or make video or audio recording at a polling station.
A total of 1 239 candidates will run for 733 seats in 25 subsectors/sub-subsectors on polling day, while 110 ordinary polling stations and two dedicated polling stations set up at police stations will open from 7.30am to 10.30pm for more than 230 000 registered voters in the contested subsectors/ sub-subsectors to cast their votes. For security reasons, the polling hours of the dedicated polling stations set up at penal institutions will be from 9am to 4pm.
Upon the close of the poll, ballot boxes of the ordinary polling stations and the dedicated polling stations will be delivered to the central counting station at AsiaWorld-Expo where the counting of votes will take place. All election results will be announced at the media centre of the central counting station. A public gallery will be set up for members of the public to watch the announcement of results at the media centre. In view of the limited seating capacity, admission to the public gallery will be arranged on a first come, first served basis from 11pm on December 11. To facilitate admission control, members of the public admitted to the venue will be required to wear a wristband provided by the REO for identification purpose.
For enquiries, please call the election hotline on 2891 1001 or visit the election website (www.elections.gov.hk).
Ends/Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:04
Issued at HKT 18:04
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