XN000022-1995-04-11 — Page 12

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1.4 million employees' information for voter registration in new FCs received

Information on some 1.4 million employees for registration as voters in the nine new functional constituencies of the Legislative Council was received by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) as at end of last week, the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Nicholas Ng, said today (Tuesday).

Speaking at a Lions Club of South Kowloon luncheon meeting, Mr Ng said these returns, which covered the employees' names and identity card numbers, were provided by close to 170,000 employers in response to the REO's request for information.

Mr Ng urged those who had not responded to the REO's request to reply as soon as possible so that all eligible people could cast their vote in the Legislative Council elections on September 17.

"Since late last month, staff of the Home Affairs Department have been conducting follow-up visits to collect employees' information from those employers who have not yet responded," he said.

For the 1.4 million employee records received, a preliminary estimate was that about half of the employees included in the employers' returns were general electors on the General Electoral Roll (GER), Mr Ng said.

"The REO is issuing letters to these people informing them the functional constituency they belong to according to their employer's main line of business.

"Until last weekend some 420,000 such letters have been sent and these employees will be registered as voters in the relevant new functional constituency if they raise no objection," he said.

"For the remaining employees who are not yet on the GER, government staff will approach them at their workplaces to facilitate their registration in both the GER and a relevant new functional constituency."

Mr Ng added that residents could also get a voter registration form from any of the 1,500 outlets throughout the territory to get themselves registered before June 1 for the Legislative Council elections.

"These outlets include banks, post offices and a number of Government department offices," he said.