Amendment to the Election Committee final register (22 October 2021 - 1 January 2023)

Bernardo made this Freedom of Information request to Registration and Electoral Office

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Dear Registration and Electoral Office,

I am writing to request for the information for amendment to the Election Committee final register, from 22 October 2021, the start of the tenure of this session's members, to 1 January 2023, i.e. information in relation to all outgoing and incoming members of the Election Committee.

May such information be presented in bilingual, tabular form, and in an Excel spreadsheet. Information shall include but not limited to -

1a. The name of the outgoing member;
1b. The constituency of the outgoing member;
1c. The ending date of the outgoing member's tenure;
1d. Reason for departure, if any;
1e. Referencing gazette notice;
2a. The name of the incoming member;
2b. The constituency of the incoming member;
2c. The starting date of the incoming member's tenure;
2d. The name of such person's predecessor, if any;
2e. Referencing gazette notice;

Yours faithfully,

Bernardo

Registration and Electoral Office

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香港特別行政區 選舉事務處謹覆

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Registration and Electoral Office
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Registration and Electoral Office

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received your application for access to information on 16.1.2023.

Your application is now under processing.  According to paragraph 1.16 of
the Code on Access to Information, we will inform you of the latest
progress of the case separately on or before 5.2.2023.

In the meantime, please contact me at 3543 1899 if you have any enquiry

(Ms Ada LUK)
for Chief Electoral Officer

From:        Bernardo <[FOI #1285 email]>
To:        FOI requests at Registration and Electoral Office
<[Registration and Electoral Office request email]>
Date:        16/01/2023 12:06 AM
Subject:        Freedom of Information request - Amendment to the Election
Committee final register (22 October 2021 - 1 January 2023)

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Dear Registration and Electoral Office,

I am writing to request for the information for amendment to the Election
Committee final register, from 22 October 2021, the start of the tenure of
this session's members, to 1 January 2023, i.e. information in relation to
all outgoing and incoming members of the Election Committee.

May such information be presented in bilingual, tabular form, and in an
Excel spreadsheet. Information shall include but not limited to -

1a. The name of the outgoing member;
1b. The constituency of the outgoing member;
1c. The ending date of the outgoing member's tenure;
1d. Reason for departure, if any;
1e. Referencing gazette notice;
2a. The name of the incoming member;
2b. The constituency of the incoming member;
2c. The starting date of the incoming member's tenure;
2d. The name of such person's predecessor, if any;
2e. Referencing gazette notice;

Yours faithfully,

Bernardo

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This is a request under the Code of Access to Information facilitated via
the accessinfo.hk website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #1285 email]

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to Registration and Electoral Office? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[1]https://accessinfo.hk/en/change_request/...

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References

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Registration and Electoral Office

1 Attachment

Dear Bernardo,

        Thank you for your application dated 16 January 2023 seeking
access to the information on amendments to the final register (“FR”) of
the Election Committee (“EC”), i.e. information in relation to all
outgoing and incoming members of the EC from its publication on 22 October
2021 to 1 January 2023.

Ex-officio EC members

        The ECFR is amended from time to time to give effect to any change
in the ex-officio membership of the EC in accordance with section 41 of
the Schedule to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance (Cap. 569) (“the
Ordinance”).  Section 41(1) and (2) of the Schedule to the Ordinance are
extracted below (with emphasis in bold) -

“(1) The Electoral Registration Officer may from time to time amend the
interim register of members of the Election Committee or final register of
members of the Election Committee in accordance with this section and the
EAC Regulations to give effect to any change in the ex-officio membership
of the Election Committee.

(2) If an ex-officio member of the Election Committee resigns from the
membership of the Election Committee or is regarded as having resigned
from such membership under section 3, the Electoral Registration Officer
must remove the member’s name from the interim register of members of the
Election Committee or final register of members of the Election
Committee.”

As specified in section 41(4) of the Schedule to the Ordinance, if the
Electoral Registration Officer (“ERO”) adds names to or removes names from
the ECFR under section 41, that Officer shall publish a notice to the
effect that names have been so added or removed.  The ECFR takes effect on
the date of the publication of the said notice.  Therefore, for the
information concerning incoming and outgoing ex-officio members of the EC,
you may refer to the relevant Gazette Notices, details of which are
summarised at Annex for reference -
 
EC members (other than ex-officio members)    

Unlike for ex-officio members, there is no legal requirement for a change
in membership of EC members (other than ex-officio members) to be
published in a Gazette Notice.  Whilst pursuant to section 5(4)(da) of the
Electoral Affairs Commission (Registration) (Electors for Legislative
Council Functional Constituencies) (Voters for Election Committee
Subsectors) (Members of Election Committee) Regulation (Cap. 541B) (“the
Regulation”), if a member has resigned, or is deemed to have resigned from
the EC under section 3 of the Schedule to the Ordinance, a note or other
indication to that effect against the entry relating to that member must
be contained in the ECFR.  Similar arrangement is also made for a deceased
EC member.  

The subsisting electoral laws provide for how persons may gain access to
the ECFR i.e. by way of provision of an extract of the ECFR or inspection
of the ECFR.  In this regard, sections 41(1), (2) and (5) of the
Regulation stipulate the requirements for the provision of an extract of
the ECFR (with emphasis in bold) –

“(1) The Electoral Registration Officer may, any time after the
publication of the functional constituencies register, subsector register
or Election Committee register, make available an extract from any such
published register for any purpose related to an election to a specified
person. The Electoral Registration Officer may, before making available an
extract, arrange the entries in the extract in a form that Officer
considers appropriate for the purposes of this section.

(2) When the Electoral Registration Officer makes available an extract
under subsection (1), that Officer must specify the particular election
for which it may be used.…

(5) specified person (指明的人) means—
… (c) in relation to an Election Committee interim register or Election
Committee final register— a person falling within paragraph (b) or (c) of
the definition of specified person in section 39(6).”
It is further defined in section 39(6) of the Regulation that:
“specified person (指明的人), in relation to an Election Committee interim
register or Election Committee final register, means—
(a) a person who is a subscriber to the Government News and Media
Information System maintained by the Director of Information Services;
(b) a body or organization that is incorporated, or is registered or
exempt from registration, under any law of Hong Kong and—
(i)                        was provided an extract under section 41(1) for
a purpose related to a previous election;
(ii)                was represented by a validly nominated candidate at a
previous election; or
(iii)        has publicly declared an intention to arrange for any person
        (including a person yet to be specified) to stand as a candidate
at a coming election; or
(c) a person who is a validly nominated candidate for a coming election.”
In view of the above-mentioned provisions, unless you are a specified
person defined under section 41(5) of the Regulation and the requested
information is used for a purpose related to a particular election, the
ERO could not provide you with the requested information relating to the
particulars of EC members (other than ex-officio members) contained in the
ECFR.  Further, according to paragraph 2.18(a) of the Code on Access to
Information, a department may refuse to disclose information for the
reason that the disclosure of which would constitute a contravention of
any law which applies in Hong Kong, i.e. section 41 of the Regulation in
the present case.  In this regard, we regret to inform you that your
request relating to the particulars of EC members (other than ex-officio
members) on the ECFR could not be acceded to.

For completeness, if you are a person / representative of an organisation
who is a subscriber to the Government News and Media Information System
maintained by the Director of Information Services, you may inspect the
ECFR during the Registration and Electoral Office (“REO”)'s ordinary
business hours in accordance with section 39 of the Regulation.  Please
note that pursuant to sections 5(4) and 39(4AA) of the Regulation, only
the first Chinese character of the name (if the person's name is recorded
in Chinese) or the first word of the name (if the person’s name is
recorded in English), his/her principal residential address and subsector
would be shown on the ECFR for inspection. You may refer to the details in
the relevant press release -
[1]https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/2021....

For the requested information relating to the tenures and names of the
outgoing  EC members (other than ex-officio members), such information
pertaining to the privacy of an individual was provided to and collected
by the REO for voter registration and election-related purposes.
 According to paragraph 2.15(a) and (b) of the Code on Access to
Information, a department may refuse to disclose information if disclosure
of which is not consistent with the purposes for which the information was
collected and if the subject of the information has not given consent to
its disclosure. Given the above, your request relating to the tenures and
names of the outgoing EC members (other than ex-officio members) could not
be acceded to.

If you are not satisfied with the above decision, you may review the
decision by writing to the Chief Electoral Officer at 10/F, Harbour
Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Alternatively, you may
complain to the Office of The Ombudsman at 30/F, China Merchants Tower,
Shun Tak Centre, 168-200 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong (Telephone No.:
2629 0555 and Fax No.: 2882 8149).

If you need further information, please contact the undersigned at 3543
1899.  Thank you for your interest in electoral matters!

(Ms Ada LUK)
For Chief Electoral Officer

From:        reoenq/REO/HKSARG
To:        Bernardo <[FOI #1285 email]>
Date:        20/01/2023 09:23 AM
Subject:        Re: Freedom of Information request - Amendment to the
Election Committee final register (22 October 2021 - 1 January 2023)
 (#1/2023)

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Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received your application for access to information on 16.1.2023.

Your application is now under processing.  According to paragraph 1.16 of
the Code on Access to Information, we will inform you of the latest
progress of the case separately on or before 5.2.2023.

In the meantime, please contact me at 3543 1899 if you have any enquiry

(Ms Ada LUK)
for Chief Electoral Officer

From:        Bernardo <[FOI #1285 email]>
To:        FOI requests at Registration and Electoral Office
<[Registration and Electoral Office request email]>
Date:        16/01/2023 12:06 AM
Subject:        Freedom of Information request - Amendment to the Election
Committee final register (22 October 2021 - 1 January 2023)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Registration and Electoral Office,

I am writing to request for the information for amendment to the Election
Committee final register, from 22 October 2021, the start of the tenure of
this session's members, to 1 January 2023, i.e. information in relation to
all outgoing and incoming members of the Election Committee.

May such information be presented in bilingual, tabular form, and in an
Excel spreadsheet. Information shall include but not limited to -

1a. The name of the outgoing member;
1b. The constituency of the outgoing member;
1c. The ending date of the outgoing member's tenure;
1d. Reason for departure, if any;
1e. Referencing gazette notice;
2a. The name of the incoming member;
2b. The constituency of the incoming member;
2c. The starting date of the incoming member's tenure;
2d. The name of such person's predecessor, if any;
2e. Referencing gazette notice;

Yours faithfully,

Bernardo

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request under the Code of Access to Information facilitated via
the accessinfo.hk website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #1285 email]

Is [Registration and Electoral Office request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests
to Registration and Electoral Office? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[2]https://accessinfo.hk/en/change_request/...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[3]https://accessinfo.hk/en/help/officers

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/2021...
2. https://accessinfo.hk/en/change_request/...
3. https://accessinfo.hk/en/help/officers