Hong Kong Regulations

BOUNDARY AND ELECTION COMMISSION (ELECTORAL PROCEDURE) (FUNCTIONAL CONSTITUENCIES AND ELECTION COMMITTEE CONSTITUENCY) REGULATION - SECT 53

Decisions as to questionable ballot papers

Caution: This is a past version. See the current version here.

(1) The returning officer shall separate from the other ballot papers, and set
aside, any ballot paper which appears to him to be a ballot paper which is
described in section 52.

(2) A candidate in respect of the constituency concerned or an election agent
or counting agent of such a candidate, if present at the counting station,
shall be entitled to inspect any ballot paper set aside under subsection (1),
and to make representations to the returning officer concerning the same.

(3) After considering any such representations, the returning  officer shall
make a decision as to whether that ballot paper is a ballot paper which under
section 52 should not be counted or whether it should be counted.

(4) The returning officer shall endorse the word "rejected" and " " on any
ballot paper which he determines, under subsection (3), to be a
ballot paper not to be counted, and add "rejection objected to" and " " to the
endorsement if a candidate or an election agent or a counting agent of a
candidate for the constituency concerned objects to his decision.

(5) If a candidate or an election agent or a counting agent of a candidate for
the constituency concerned objects to a decision made by the returning officer
under subsection (3) to count a ballot paper, the
returning officer shall endorse the words "acceptance objected to" and
"                         " on that ballot paper.


(6) The returning officer shall prepare a statement of the ballot papers which
he determines under subsection (3) to be ballot papers which are not to be
counted, under the following headings-

(a) writing or mark by which the elector can be identified;

        (b)	endorsed with the word "TENDERED" and "          ";


        (c)	endorsed with the word "SPOILT" and "             ";


   (d)  unused;

   (e)  unmarked;

   (f)  not marked in accordance with section 36(a), (b) or (c), as may be
        appropriate;

   (g)  void for uncertainty; or

   (h)  substantially mutilated. (Enacted 1995)