In response to enquiries on today's (April 5) media report that the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) has not located a Register of Electors in relation to the 2016 Legislative Council General Election, the REO gives the following reply:
The REO is conducting a thorough search for the Register of Electors of a polling station in Kwai Tsing in the 2016 Legislative Council General Election. The case has also been filed to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
The Register of Electors contains the name, sex, address, Hong Kong Identity Card number, number of ballot papers entitled by individual elector of about 8 000 electors assigned to the polling station. If an elector casts his/her vote in that election, a line across his/her name and Hong Kong Identity card number was also placed.
"There has been no information so far showing any leakage of the relevant information. The REO apologises for the distress to concerned electors caused by the incident," a spokesman for the REO said.
"We are trying our best to look for the concerned Register of Electors and will make announcement of the result of search at once," the spokesman added.
According to the Electoral Affairs Commission (Electoral Procedure) (Legislative Council) Regulation, election documents must be retained for at least six months from the date of the election to which they relate. The documents must be destroyed thereafter, unless directed by an order of court in proceedings relating to an election petition or criminal proceedings. The Registers of Electors for the 2016 Legislative Council General Election are kept for the on-going investigation by law enforcement agency, while ballot papers of that election have been destroyed in accordance with the above law.
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