 Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, at a media session after casting his votes in the 2016 Legislative Council General Election at the polling station at Sai Ying Pun Community Complex Community Hall this morning (September 4):
Reporter: Mr Tam, one of the candidates suspended the campaign as he feels like there are high level forces. Can you respond on that?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: First of all, I think under the law, there is no such thing called "棄選" in Cantonese or (candidates) giving up their campaigns or suspending their electioneering work, because under the law, each and every candidate, after their nomination has been validated by the Returning Officer, the candidate list would appear on the ballot paper. I take note that some candidates have announced publicly over the past one or two days that they would suspend their electioneering campaigns. I would just like to respond by saying that in my view this is no more than a political decision. But a note of caution is that, under the electoral laws, there are many provisions guiding the behaviours of candidates and their agents, including election expenses, election advertisements, etc. Each and every candidate could have their own decisions, but all their decisions would have to closely follow the electoral laws and regulations, so as not to do anything that is inconsistent with any laws and regulations. That is the note of caution that I would like to offer them.
Reporter: Do you think that the electoral body actually has a system of letting the candidates suspend or give up their campaigns so that the ballot paper would not show their names?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: No, the ballot paper of course would show each and every validly nominated candidate, their names, their political affiliations and logos are on ballot papers actually. So it would be up to the voters to decide whom to cast their votes for. And under the electoral laws, there is no such thing as suspension of campaign or "棄選" in Cantonese, because once they have been validly nominated, no candidate could withdraw from the race. I just said that I would like to offer a note of caution because under the electoral laws, things are not that simple. I would have to give a gentle reminder to all candidates that they would have to follow each and every law and regulation under the electoral system. Thank you very much.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, September 4, 2016
Issued at HKT 10:11
NNNN
The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, casts his vote (geographical constituency) in the 2016 Legislative Council General Election at the polling station at Sai Ying Pun Community Complex Community Hall this morning (September 4).
The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, casts his vote (District Council (second) functional constituency) in the 2016 Legislative Council General Election at the polling station at Sai Ying Pun Community Complex Community Hall this morning (September 4).
|
