XN000022-1995-03-05 — Page 6

Transcript of the Governor's media session outside press centre

The following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after visiting the Press Centre for the Municipal Councils elections at the City Hall this (Sunday) afternoon:

Governor: I went to Yuen Long this morning to see the polling there and the figures that we heard this morning have been continued pretty well through the day. The turnout is fairly consistently higher than it was in the last Municipal Council elections. Perhaps even more significantly with a record voter registration this year, the actual number of people voting is very substantially higher, about 95,000 more people have voted by 4:30 pm than last time. And we're well on our way to passing the number who voted in 1991. There's still over five hours to go of what's been a beautiful sunny day. So I hope that everyone will take the chance of getting out and voting in these elections for their Municipal Councils which do an important job in Hong Kong, and I am sure that many people will want to put their imprint on the work of the councils over the next few years. The arrangements seem by and large to have gone even more smoothly in the Municipal Council Elections than in the District Board elections. There's still some time to go. But we're obviously learning some lessons very rapidly. And as I say by and large the elections have been as well conducted as they would be, I think, anywhere in the world. And that's a great credit to all the officials, all the civil servants and all the parties and candidates who've been involved. So, so far, so good. But five hours to go. And I hope that those who haven't yet voted will leave the television or whatever else they are doing for a few minutes and go down to the polling stations and cast a vote.

Question: What, do you think, would you hope Beijing will learn from this?

Governor: I think it's for people to take their own lessons, but clearly, candidates who would customarily associate themselves with some of the views expressed by Peking officials have taken an active part in this campaign. I think everybody welcomes that. It's important that all points of view are reflected in the campaign. And I think that what everybody knows is that conducting elections like this isn't a threat to anybody. Hong Kong manages these things by and large with considerable moderation and considerable success. What we're talking about is people having some influence over the day-to-day decisions that affect their lives. And I think that's something that should be welcomed here and everywhere else. So I hope that this will be one of the paving stones back to a more co-operative relationship in the last and important months and years of transition. I hope that we'll be able to say when we look back on today's elections that they've been as good a day for Hong Kong as the District Board elections polling day was.