Voting arrangements for HK's fifth-term chief executive election in place: official

HONG KONG -- All arrangements for the voting of the fifth-term chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) to be held on Sunday were ready, an electoral official said on Saturday.

After visiting the main polling station in the Grand Hall at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) Fung Wah noted that all the arrangements for the polling station were in place.

The first round of voting will start at 9 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) when nearly 1,200 members of the Election Committee (EC) cast their votes by secret ballot at the main polling station.

There are three qualified candidates running for the Hong Kong SAR's top position. The order of their names on the ballot paper is -- Tsang Chun-wah (No. 1), Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (No. 2) and Woo Kwok-hing (No. 3).

"The ballot is secret and conducted in a confidential manner," Fung said.

"According to the law, ballot papers will not be printed with numbers. Polling staff are prohibited from recording which particular ballot paper is issued to an elector," Fung added.

EC members must not disclose any information on their voting preference. After being issued a ballot paper, each EC member is required to enter a voting compartment alone to mark the ballot paper, he said.

Fung pointed out that sufficient manpower will be deployed to maintain order and handle any breach of the law.

The first round of voting will be closed at 11 a.m. (0300 GMT) and the result of counting will be announced later. If no candidate wins outright, the second round will be scheduled from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the third from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

A candidate wins the election when he or she obtains more than 600 valid votes in any round of voting and will be appointed by the central government, according to Hong Kong's Basic Law and the Chief Executive Election Ordinance.

After the appointment, the winner will take oath of office on July 1 and become the fifth-term chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR.