XN000022-1995-05-05 — Page 27

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Residents reminded to sign up as voters before June 1

The acting Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Joseph Lai, today (Friday) reminded working people who had not yet received any notification from the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) regarding their registration as a functional constituency elector to pick up a form quickly and sign up before the registration deadline on June 1.

Registration forms are available from over 1,500 places, including District Offices, major banks, post offices and housing estate offices.

There are also temporary registration counters all over Hong Kong, apart from local registration campaigns conducted by the District Offices.

"The Government's aim is to register as many working persons as possible, so that they can have a second vote for the forthcoming Legislative Council elections," Mr Lai said.

Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the FLMI Society, Mr Lai said there might be two reasons for a resident not to have received any notification from the REO - either he had not registered as a geographical elector before, or his employer had not yet supplied his particulars to the office.

"The REO has sent out over 710,000 letters to all companies in Hong Kong, requesting employers to supply particulars of their employees, and to advise on their main line of business," he said.

Taking the insurance sector as example, Mr Lai said all insurance companies would have received the request back in January this year.

"If an insurance company responded and supplied to the REO the required information, the REO will cross-check the employees' list with the General Electoral Roll.

"This step is important because you can only register as a functional elector if you are already a geographical elector," he said.

"For an insurance company employee who is already a geographical elector, the REO will group him under the Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services functional constituency - one of the nine new functional constituencies.

"The employee will receive a notification to this effect. If he does not object, he will automatically be registered in the new functional constituency."