In a record turnout, about 1.7 million people voted yesterday to elect the third Legislative Council (LegCo) after reunification with the motherland.

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa appealed for a closer relationship with the new legislature to work for Hong Kong's well being.

Final official results of the elections are expected to be available this morning.

The elections, starting at 7:30 am, closed at 10:30 pm in fine weather.By closure, about 53 per cent of the 3.2 million electorate had cast votes at 501 polling stations, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said.

The turnout rates for previous LegCo elections in 1998 and 2000 were respectively 53.29 per cent and 43.57 per cent.

In yesterday'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, they already have their candidates returned uncontested.

It 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.

Last night, exit polls cited by Cable News television indicated Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) were about to secure six seats in the geographical constituencies.

The DAB and FTU candidates tipped to win are DAB Chairman Ma Lik, former chairman Tsang Yok-sing, Chan Kam-lam, Tam Yiu-chung and Lau Kwong-wah and FTU vice-chairman Chan Yuen-han. Liberal Party chairman James Tien and vice-chairman Selina Chow were also believed to have won.

Inspecting a vote-counting station in Happy Valley shortly before mid-night, Tung repeated his call to winners for concerted efforts to advance Hong Kong's interests.

After casting his vote in the morning, Tung said: "Today is the election day for the third LegCo. 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."

Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang voted at another polling station in the Peak at 11 am. He said that in the economic, social and political development of Hong Kong, the new legislators would play an important role and have a dual duty not only to exercise checks and balances on the Administration but also a duty to help the Administration to achieve effective governance.

Tsang said the elections symbolized a society becoming more open with more people participating in governing the SAR.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said the elections set two records: the rise to a total of 3.2 million registered voters and 159 candidates standing for the election. Both figures were historic highs.

Lam noted that while Hong Kong's democracy was developing in a gradual and orderly way and in line with the Basic Law, the new LegCo would have an important role to play in the constitutional package for the selection of the chief executive in 2007 and the legislature in 2008.

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.

Among the five geographical constituencies, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East took the lead alternately in the number of people casting their votes.

Making a last-minute effort to canvass votes, DAB chairman Ma Lik admitted his party was facing a "severe" situation.

Ma was heading a team of six including Choy So-yuk in the Hong Kong Island constituency against independent candidates Rita Fan and Wong Kam-fai as well as the pan-pro-democracy camp teams of Yeung Sum, Tsang Kin-shing and Audrey Eu.

Outside St Stephen's Girls Secondary School polling station in Central, a taxi driver told China Daily that he must fulfill his duty as a citizen by voting and electing a legislator who would work for the prosperity and stability of the SAR.

Tung said the voting was completed in a fair and just manner in spite of incidents of ballot boxes being full at some polling stations and complaints about alleged irregularities made by candidates and their campaign workers. According to the authorities, most of the complaints were about election advertisements.

On the question of ballot boxes being full, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Lam said the Registration and Electoral Office had a backup stock of ballot boxes and these were sent to stations where more boxes were needed.

Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Justice Woo Kwok-hing said the incidents of full ballot boxes would not affect the election outcome, adding that the elections were fair and just. He admitted some electors had to wait longer or had to return to vote later.

(HK Edition 09/13/2004 page1)