Voting time for coming District Council elections shortened by an hour

The coming District Council elections to be held on December 10 will run from 8.30 am to 10.30 pm, an hour less when compared to the previous term in 2019 but the same as that of the Legislative Council elections in 2021. 

As for the elections for the District Committees constituency – the Area Committees, the Fight Crime Committees and the District Fire Safety Committees, the opening hours will be 8.30 am to 2.30 pm. 

David Lok Kai-hong, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC), said the opening hours for the elections for the District Committees will be shorter as there are fewer voters of about 2,500. 

Members of the district care teams will be stationed at the polling stations. The Electronic Poll Register system will continue to be adopted for issuing ballet papers for more flexible, efficient and accurate issuance of ballot papers. 

The polling stations are classified into five types, the ordinary polling stations, the District Committees Constituency (DCC) polling stations, the dedicated polling stations, the special polling stations and the small polling stations. 

The ordinary polling stations and the DCC polling stations will be converted to counting stations immediately after the close of the poll for counting ballot papers. The dedicated polling stations are for registered electors who are imprisoned or held in custody by the law enforcement agencies on the polling day to cast their votes. 

The special polling stations are for electors with mobility difficulty and the small polling stations are for those with less than 200 voters assigned. Counting of votes will not be carried out therein. 

A full list of the polling stations will be published in the government gazette on November 17. 

The ceiling for election expenses for the District Committees Constituency is set at HK$100,000, and ranges from HK$512,000 to HK$951,000 for District Council elections. 

Lok mentioned that the EAC didn’t launch any public consultation as relevant laws were approved in Legco in July following thorough discussions. 

When asked about rejecting calls from several parties on shortening the opening hours of polling stations, Lok noted that citizens in Hong Kong work very long hours and the EAC must consult the public before making the decision. 

The EAC this time also relaxed the requirement of submitting information of election advertisements from within a day to three days.