XN000022-1995-10-12 — Page 54

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Voter complaints investigation results announced

The Chairman of the Boundary and Election Commission (BEC), Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, today (Thursday) announced the results of investigations into complaints about persons being turned away from polling stations in New Territories Northwest (NTNW) and New Territories North (NTN) constituencies on the polling day on September 17.

A total of 2,521 persons in the NTNW constituency and 1,280 persons in the NTN constituency were turned away.

There were 34 cases of complaint in respect of the NTNW constituency involving 1,039 out of the 2,521 persons and 25 cases of complaint in the NTN constituency involving some 150 out of the 1,280 persons. The remainders made no complaint.

Mr Justice Woo said 804 persons in the NTNW constituency and 516 persons in the NTN constituency were turned away because their names were no longer on the 1995 Final Register (FR).

"Their names were deleted because they neither responded to the inquiries sent by the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) from mid-February to the end of April nor lodged any claim to the Revising Officer during the statutory appeal period between June 21 and July 5 when the 1995 Provisional Register (PR) was open for public inspection," he said.

He added that the entire vetting process was conducted strictly in accordance with the law and no human error was involved.

Mr Justice Woo also said 1,449 persons in the NTNW constituency and 565 persons in the NTN constituency had attended the wrong polling stations.

"This was mainly because the REO had learnt from other sources, for example, tenancy records of the Housing Department, that these electors had changed their addresses and had therefore reallocated them to the appropriate constituencies and polling stations."

Some had been reallocated as a result of the additional or replacement polling stations set up in the constituency.