Hong Kong District Council Election held Sunday saw two records broken - the largest voter turnout rate and the highest number of votes cast.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (centre), Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Woo Kwok-hing (right) and Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam open a ballot box at a polling station at Happy Valley constituency Sunday night after voting ended at 10:30 pm. Tung said he was proud that 1.06 million voters cast their ballots, representing a turnout of 44 per cent, both figures setting a record. [newsphoto.com.cn]

The election threw up 400 representatives who are to serve in the SAR's 18 District Councils during the next four years.

With Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and senior government officials taking the lead, 1.06 million Hongkongers cast their votes Sunday, the highest in the history of district council elections.

With about 2.4 million registered electors, the turnout rate was 44.06 per cent, also the highest ever. This represents a 8.26-percentage-point increase over the previous election.

Of the 18 districts, Outlying Islands saw the highest turnout, with 50.38 per cent of electors casting their votes, whereas voters in Wan Chai were the least enthusiastic with only 35.46 per cent bothering to turn up at polling stations.

One of the election battlefields that hogged the most limelight was Kam Ping constituency in Eastern District, where Choy So-yuk, a candidate of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and legislator, defeated Leung Kwok-hung, a candidate of April 5 Action, who was parachuted to the area, and Wong Shing-kwong, a non-affiliated candidate.

With her many years of community service in the predominantly Fujian neighbour-hood, Choy was able to beat Leung, her closest rival, by a margin of 284 votes.

"I will further review my performance in the past to see if there is any room for improvement, and I will spur myself on to do better and live up to Kam Lung residents' expectations and support," said Choy, celebrating her victory after vote counting.

Another constituency that was the focus of attention was Kwun Lung in Central and Western District, where close to 52 per cent of registered voters made their choice yesterday.

Ip Kwok-him, a DAB candidate and representative of District Councils in the legislature, lost to Cyd Ho, a candidate of The Frontier and also a legislator, by a narrow margin of 64 votes.

Ip said after the poll that he respected the voters' decision and would continue to serve the residents there.

After polling was over, the chief executive said the election had been successfully held in a fair, open and orderly manner.

He said this fully indicated people's high civic awareness, something that Hong Kong should be proud of.

"I look forward to working closely with the new district councillors and give full play to their roles in district affairs. Let us all work together to do an even better job in community work and in improving people's livelihoods," Tung said.

Explaining the surge in voter turnout, Stephen Lam, the secretary for constitutional affairs, said that Hong Kong people are beginning to understand the importance of district affairs, and their interest has been aroused by an injection of new blood into political parties and by the publicity generated by the government and the parties in recent months.

Lam also admitted that the July 1 mass protest had an impact as some new political groups emerged after the demonstration and people had become more conscious of the work of district councils.

"This will help us in promoting a wider discussion within the community on the longer-term constitutional development in Hong Kong beyond 2007," he said.

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