A recount of the ballots issued and cast in four controversial functional constituencies has revealed a discrepancy of one to three votes in number, a difference that Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Woo Kwok-hing said is too small to affect the results.

Since the close of Sunday's Legislative Council elections, some candidates who lost in the constituencies of Social Welfare, Labour, Accounting and Health Services have queried the difference in the number of the reported turnout and the received ballots.

For instance, in the Social Welfare constituency, questions were raised after the number of 8,538 ballots returned ostensibly exceeded the number of 8,475 voters who had turned up. Similar discrepancies were noted in the other three constituencies.

Answering the queries at a press conference, Woo said a recount of the ballots issued and returned revealed only a difference from one to three ballots in number.

Woo clarified that in the Social Welfare constituency, a total of 8,539 ballots were issued while 8,538 ballots were returned, only one ballot fewer.

In the Labour constituency, the number of ballots issued was 458 and those returned was 455; in Accounting, the number issued was 12,324 and returned 12,323; and in Health Services, the figures were 22,037 and 22,035.

It was possible that somebody had walked away from the polling stations with the ballot papers, Woo said.

Woo said the provisional figures of turnouts released to the media throughout the day was based on a manual count and was for reference only. He would not rule out human error being the culprit in giving the provisional count.

In light of the findings, Woo was convinced the provisional counts of turnouts given to the media were misleading. He believed specification should be made to say they were "intended for reference" in the future.

Meanwhile, Woo apologized for the inconvenience caused to voters who had to queue up for a long time or to return to vote again because ballot boxes were full at some polling stations. He pledged to review their design to avoid similar incidents in future elections. He said he would submit a report to the chief executive within three months.

"Owing to the inadequacy of the design of the new ballot boxes and an underestimation of the number of ballot boxes needed, inconvenience was caused to the electors. In this regard, the commission would like to apologize to all the electors," Woo said.

On the question of the polling officers opening ballot boxes at some polling stations, he said the commission had permitted the presiding officers to do so.

Woo expressed concern over alleged incidents in which local election agents of candidates were expelled from polling stations when the ballot boxes were opened. Under the electoral law, he said the agents could choose to be present. He said the presiding and returning officers involved had been asked to explain the incidents.

He said permission to open the ballot boxes was issued over the phone by commission member Norman Leung. It was a general permission applicable to all polling stations. Hence, the commission did not record the exact number of polling stations that made the request.

If candidates or electors were dissatisfied with the results or the procedure, Woo said they were free to file an election petition to the court to request a recount.

Candidate Cheung Kwok-che of Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union, who lost to lecturer Cheung Chiu-hung by 64 votes, said he was dissatisfied with Woo's explanation and would consider filing a petition to the court for a recount.

A group of legislators-designate of the "pro-democracy camp", meanwhile, requested the authorities to make an independent investigation into the incidents.

Speaking after meeting with the legislators-designate, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam reiterated the election was completed in an open, fair and just manner in spite of the incidents and promised to relay their request for an independent inquiry to the chief executive.

(China Daily HK Edition September 16, 2004)