Elections

7.1	On the polling day, all counting staff reported for duty to their own Counting Supervisors at the respective district counting stations before 9:00 pm. The ballot boxes from the 432 polling stations were delivered to the 18 district counting stations shortly after the poll closed at 10:30 pm. On arrival these ballot boxes were deposited in an area in the station exclusively designated for keeping them. The receiving process was generally smooth. Delay was experienced, however, in some districts because of the need for rectifying some technical irregularities relating to the ballot boxes and electoral documents, for instance, missing box keys, incorrect completion of ballot paper accounts etc.
7.2	The counting process went on satisfactorily. The Tai Po District was the first to come up with its first DCC election result right after 1:00 am on 29 November 1999. Altogether, 11 Districts managed to have their first DCC election result announced before 2:00 am on 29 November 1999. The majority of the Districts, i.e. 16 of them, were able to complete the entire counting process and announce the election results of all the DCCs in their Districts before 10:00 am on 29 November 1999. The counting for the whole election concluded at 1:30 pm on 29 November 1999 when the last election result in respect of a DCC in Kwun Tong District was declared.
7.3	All counted and rejected ballot papers together with the counting records were taken over by the REO staff after the close of the district counting stations for safe custody.
7.4	The election result of each DCC was announced at the District's counting station following completion of the count and was simultaneously disseminated to the press and other parties concerned at the CCC at the HKCEC. These results were published in the Gazette on 3 December 1999 while the names of the uncontested candidates of the 76 DCCs had been published in the Gazette on 29 October 1999. A full list of the election results is at Appendix IV.
7.5	The introduction of the chop with a "Tick" for marking ballot papers was successful in reducing the number of questionable ballot papers and substantially reducing the number of those void for uncertainty. For an analysis of the rejected ballot papers, see Appendix II.