More than 1.5 million people voted Sunday in a record turnout for the third Legislative Council (LegCo) elections since Hong Kong's reunification with the motherland.

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa appealed for a closer relationship with the new legislature in the interests of stability in Hong Kong.

The elections, starting at 7:30 AM, closed at 10:30 PM in fine weather. By 9:30 pm, 48.8 per cent, or a total of 1,564,762 voters, of the 3.2 million electorate, had cast votes at 501 polling stations. The results will not be available until early in the morning.

The turnout rate for the last LegCo elections in 2000 was 43.57 per cent.

In Sunday's elections, a total of 35 lists of 88 candidates ran for 30 LegCo seats in five geographical constituencies and another 60 candidates vied for 19 seats in 17 functional constituencies. For 11 other functional constituencies, the candidates were returned uncontested.

This is the first time that half of the LegCo's 60 seats have been returned by direct election, giving rise to the most democratically elected legislature in the history of Hong Kong. The number of directly elected seats was 24 in the last legislature.

After casting his vote in the morning, Tung appealed to new legislators for concerted efforts in advancing Hong Kong's interests.

"As a citizen of Hong Kong, I have come here to honour my obligation. As the chief executive, I long to work closely with the members of the new legislature to make Hong Kong's economy thrive and to safeguard social stability," Tung said.

Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang voted at another polling station in the Peak at 11 AM. He said the new legislators would play an important role in the economic, social and political development of Hong Kong.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said the election set two records - the number of registered voters rose to 3.2 million and the 159 candidates standing in the election hit an historic high.

As expected, voter turnout picked up in both geographical and functional constituencies in the afternoon.

As voting reached the half-way mark at 3:30 PM, 27.01 per cent of the electors had voted in the five geographical constituencies and 28.85 per cent had cast votes in the functional constituencies.

(China Daily September 13, 2004)