XN000022-1995-09-17 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor's media session at Press Centre

Following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after inspecting vote-counting facilities and the Press Centre at the International Trademart, Kowloon Bay, at 6 pm today (Sunday):

Governor: Hullo, I'm very pleased to see this extremely efficient and up-to-date organisation. I've taken part in a few general elections in Britain and I'm bound to say I have never seen anything quite as competently organised and modern and up-to-date as this. I was also very pleased this morning to see at polling stations the same high level of efficiency that we've come to expect in our elections, thanks to the Boundary and Election Commission and the work of the REO. There's still over four hours left to vote so I very much hope that those who are on the register and haven't yet turned out to vote will do so this evening. The weather is still good, so there's no excuse for staying at home. I hope that as many people as possible will turn out and take their civic responsibilities seriously and vote in these important elections. Already I think about 70,000 more people have voted in the geographical constituencies than at the same time in 1991 and of course the figures for the functional constituencies are hugely greater than in 1991. But I'd still like to see more people turning out and I hope that will happen during the course of the evening.

Question: Inaudible

Governor: Clearly these are open and fair elections and I think they're proving extremely acceptable to the people of Hong Kong so to that extent yes, I think it is a vindication of the decisions taken by the Legislative Council in 1993 and 1994 with, of course, a lead being given by the Government. What I think needs to be underlined once again is how Hong Kong takes these developments in its stride. As I have said before we've had a moderate sensible campaign. Today people are going about their civic responsibilities in a moderate and sensible way. Why should we expect anything else in Hong Kong because this a sophisticated, well-educated community.

Question: Inaudible