39 HK polling stations open for EC subsector polls

Hong Kong Electoral Affairs Commission announced that a total of 39 polling stations across Hong Kong are open from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday for some 47,000 registered voters to cast their votes in the contested by-elections of nine Election Committee (EC) subsectors.

Forty candidates are running for the 15 seats in the nine contested subsectors, according to a government press release Sunday.

Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) Justice Woo Kwok-hing called on voters concerned to go to the polls as early as possible Sunday.

Speaking after inspecting the electoral arrangements at a polling station in Sai Tso Wan Neighborhood Community Center, Justice Woo said that depending on the number of vacancies

available in their respective subsectors, voters would be required to choose from one to three candidates on their ballot papers.

Justice Woo and the other two members of the commission will separately inspect different polling stations to see and supervise electoral activities across the city.

The commission has also set up a complaint hotline to receive public complaints on breaches of electoral guidelines. Its service hours will extend until the close of polls at 10:30 p.m.

Justice Woo reminded registered voters concerned not to use mobile phones or undertake any photographing inside a polling station.

"This is to ensure secrecy of the ballot, and the integrity and fairness of an election," he said.

By-elections are being held to fill vacancies in the Election Committee, which will elect a new Chief Executive on July 10.

Forty candidates are running for the 15 seats in the nine contested subsectors -- Textiles and Garment, Accountancy, Architectural, Surveying and Planning, Chinese Medicine, Engineering, Higher Education, Legal, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Hong Kong and Kowloon District Councils.

Twelve candidates have been elected unopposed in the remaining seven subsectors, which are Finance, Import and Export, Industrial (First), Industrial (Second), Labor, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Heung Yee Kuk.

Six more vacancies in the Religious Subsector have been filled by supplementary nominations.