XN000022-1995-03-05 — Page 4

Governor: No.

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Question: Could you elaborate?

Governor: I've pointed out that two scuffles should be kept in context while they're regrettable. I think you should compare the way we've held elections with the way little sort of things that happened in other communities. As I said earlier in the day, there are some communities where they've only able to have elections with the help of UN police and forces. So I think people should keep these things in context.

Question: Why there is lower voter turnout in rural areas?

Governor: I'm not sure. You have to ask the individual candidates I think. There may well be particular local reasons why the turnout is lower in some areas than others, why there are differences between urban areas and rural areas. But I don't think that you can generalise if you are answering a question on individual turnout of a constituency.

Question: While we know Hong Kong is not like Cambodia where UN officials....we didn't see any scuffles in the last District Board Elections...... ?

Governor: I do think, though I haven't had full reports on these two incidents, I do think that you should keep them in context. We had today a record number of people voting in Municipal Council Elections. It'd been a lovely day. The people of Hong Kong have taken this further development in the political life of the territory completely in their strides. In a couple of cases, people extremely ill-advisedly seemed to have lost their tempers. But I don't think that the behaviour of a handful of people should be held against the over half a million who voted and who went about their business for the great degree of consciousness. We've had, I think, probably a livelier campaign with the Municipal Council Elections than we've ever had in Hong Kong before, certainly a record number of candidates competing for votes from a record number who have registered to vote. While a couple of incidents are regrettable, I really don't think you should turn them into the equivalent of Pearl Harbour.

Question: Two elections have already passed. One more to go. What messages have you got to....