XN000022-1995-04-26 — Page 31

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Inaccurate information in electoral roll

Following is a question by Dr the Hon Yeung Sum and a reply by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs. Mr Nicholas Ng. in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It is learnt that during the recent Municipal Council election, a number of candidates came across various inaccurate information in the electoral roll while making their rounds of home visits. As such problem had been identified during the 1991 Legislative Council election, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)

(b)

(c)

of the estimated percentage of inaccurate information in the electoral roll;

what methods the Government adopted during the past three years to rectify the inaccurate information in the electoral roll; and

of the reasons for the recurrence of the same problem in the recent election?

Reply:

Under the existing system, an electoral roll is compiled annually on a roll-over basis and published before 8 August of each year. Existing entries are carried forward to the next roll, after updating changes of electors' particulars as known to the Registration and Electoral Office. New entries are also added as the new roll is compiled. Deletion of an entry from the roll is effected only after going through certain statutory safeguards to ensure that an elector is not disenfranchised lightly. An electoral roll comes into force on the date of its publication and will remain in force until the publication of a new roll in the following year. There is no interim adjustment.

The current electoral roll which was used for the September 1994 District Board elections and the March 1995 Municipal Council elections was published on 1 August 1994 and it reflected the position as at that point in time. Given the population mobility in Hong Kong, it is inevitable that some of the information on the current electoral roll has become outdated since its publication last year. The information can only be updated when a new electoral roll is published in August this year, in time for use in the Legislative Council elections in September.