Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa noted Wednesday that the findings of the final report affirm that the integrity of the Sept. 12 Legislative Council (LegCo) polls was not damaged.

Tung made the remarks while announcing the appointment of four members to an Independent Committee of Experts to review election management, planning and conduct, and to make recommendations for improvement measures.

Tung expected the committee to start work in early January and take about three months to complete its work and submit a report. Daniel Tse, President Emeritus of Hong Kong Baptist University, will chair the committee.

Hong Kong's Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Justice Woo Kwok-hing noted that the LegCo election "gave rise to a number of controversies" and he recognized there were problems on election day, "but the integrity of the election was not damaged." The commission released its final report on the 2004 Legislative Council election Wednesday.

More than 1.78 million people cast their vote, in an open, fair and honest manner. This was an all-time high, an important milestone in the development of elections in Hong Kong, Woo said.

One of the chief difficulties with the election was the failure of the Interactive Voice Response System designed to report cumulative hourly voter turnout figures from all 501 polling stations. In the end, much of the data input had to be done manually. It took five hours to ensure the final results were accurate.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2004)