The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is able to maintain overall order and fairness in terms of conducting the Sunday's Legislative Council (LegCo) election, said an official Thursday night.

Stephen Lam, secretary for constitutional affairs, said the guidelines issued by the Electoral Affairs Commission and the vigilance with which the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Hong Kong Police enforce these rules will ensure that Hong Kong should be able to maintain the fine tradition of clean and fair elections.

The LegCo election to be held on Sept. 12 is the third term election, which will return 30 directly elected Legislative Councilors.

Speaking before a TV election special to promote the 2004 LegCo election, Lam reminded all voters, candidates and their supporters to respect the fair and open electoral system which Hong Kong has established very well.

"We believe that voters will be interested and keen to participate in this particular election," said Lam.

He also hoped that Sunday's election voter turnout rate will at least be on a par with that of the election in 2000, which was something between 43 percent and 44 percent.

Source: Xinhua