- 1.
Transcript of the Governor's media session
The following is a transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after visiting a training session for Legislative Council Elections polling staff today (Tuesday):
Governor: I'd like to congratulate the Boundary and Election Commission and their executive arm, the Registration and Electoral Office, for having once again carried through the initial arrangements for our elections here in Hong Kong so superbly efficiently. As you know, we've had two rounds of elections during the last year. First of all for the District Boards and then for the Municipal Councils. In both those elections, we had a record number of people registered. We had record numbers of people turning out to vote. We had a record number of candidates, and a record number of people participating in the electoral process. Now we come to the third in these elections, an important milestone in Hong Kong's development, the first time that Legislative Council has been wholly elected and it's been wholly elected in a fair and open way. The fairness and the openness and the credibility of the whole process have I think been guaranteed by the way that the Commission and the REO have carried out their duties. We know that there's a record number of people registered for these elections. We know that there was 70,000 people for example registered to vote in the functional constituencies last time and that there is now well over a million and that there are over two and a half million people registered to vote in the geographical constituencies. We also know that there is a record number of candidates in the elections. So I hope that people will turn out on Sunday and vote in the elections so that they can help shape their own present and future. Last, I'd just like to thank the 14,000 civil servants who are involved on Sunday in manning polling stations and helping with the count. They are doing a very important job and as ever with the Hong Kong civil service, they are doing it extremely competently and with integrity and dedication.
Question: Mr Governor, will you expect record polling rate this Sunday?
Governor: I am always reluctant to predict the number of people who vote. All I'll say is that's certainly what happened in the District Board and Municipal Councils. Because the number of people registered to vote has gone up so sharply, we've now got about two thirds of the people of Hong Kong registered to vote, who are eligible that is, because of that, if you have the same turnout rate as you had in the past, you got a huge increase in the number voting. If we have the same sort of turnout as happened in the last Legislative Council elections, that would involve about a quarter of a million more people voting. But we'll see what happens. I think the actual campaign has suggested that there is a lot of intelligent interest in the outcome. I think as you know, the campaign has also been conducted so far with considerable moderation, without any signs of extremism and I hope that will continue until polling day.