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Law amendments to accommodate revised publication dates of electoral registers

Two regulations will be amended to provide for a new set of dates relating to the appeal handling procedures upon the revision of the publication dates of the electoral registers.

A spokesman for the Constitutional Affairs Bureau said that following the enactment of the Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2002, the annual publication of provisional registers (PRs) and final registers (FRs) would be changed from April and May to August and September in District Council election years, and to June and July in other years.

Meanwhile, the relevant electoral laws provide that persons dissatisfied with an entry/omission in the electoral registers may submit appeal notices to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and such cases will be heard by the Revising Officer (RO).

The appeal handling procedures in respect of Geographical Constituency and Functional Constituency registers are prescribed in the Registration of Electors (Appeals) Regulation. Those for the Election Committee (EC) subsector registers and EC registers are set out in the Election Committee (Registration) (Voters for Subsectors) (Members of Election Committee) (Appeals) Regulation.

The two Regulations set out the dates for the RO to conduct hearings for objections, claims and appeals, notify the ERO of his rulings, and review his own rulings etc. These dates are currently provided for on the basis that the PRs and FRs are published in April and May respectively.

"With the revised publication dates of the electoral registers, we need to amend the Regulations correspondingly to provide for a new set of dates relating to the appeal handling procedures," the spokesman added.

The Registration of Electors (Appeals) (Amendment) Regulation 2003 and the Election Committee (Registration) (Voters for Subsectors) (Members of Election Committee) (Appeals) (Amendment) Regulation 2003 are gazetted today (February 7) and will be tabled at the Legislative Council on February 12.

End/Friday, February 7, 2003.