Poll Cards Mailed as Hong Kong Prepares for December 7 Legislative Council Election

Electors reminded to vote at allocated polling stations and follow proper voting procedures

The 2025 Legislative Council General Election (LCGE) will be held on December 7 (Sunday). A spokesman for the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) said today (December 5) that poll cards have been mailed to about 4.13 million registered electors. Electors should vote at their allocated polling stations and follow proper voting procedures when casting their votes.

Poll cards

In addition to the poll card, the election mail sent to each elector by the REO also includes a map indicating the location of the allocated polling station, a guide on voting procedure, introduction to candidates leaflets in respect of his/her relevant constituency(ies), and a publicity leaflet on clean elections by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The REO spokesman said, "In response to the Electoral Affairs Commission's earlier announcement to extend the polling hours for this LCGE, the previous polling hours stated in the poll cards and other relevant documents already sent out by the REO are no longer valid. Electors should note that the REO has sent out another notice to all Hong Kong electors, stating the new polling hours (i.e. from 7.30am to 11.30pm)."

Due to the Tai Po fire, adjustments have been made to three polling stations in the district. Affected electors need to relocate from their original polling stations to the reallocated polling stations for casting their votes. Except for those electors of Wang Fuk Court who are currently residing in other districts, the REO has sent a notice to affected electors in Kwong Fuk Estate, Tai Po Kau area and Tai Po Market to inform them of their reallocated polling stations. The affected electors may also check relevant voting information by logging into the Online Voter Information Enquiry System (www.voterinfo.gov.hk) through "iAM Smart" or the Voter Registration website (vr.gov.hk).

Arrangements of polling stations

The REO spokesman said, "There are over 4.13 million geographical constituency (GC) electors across the territory. The REO will set up 612 Ordinary Polling Stations. GC and functional constituency (FC) electors may go to the Ordinary Polling Station allocated to them and cast their votes for the candidates of their GCs and FCs (if applicable) at the same time. Approximately 1 500 electors of the Election Committee constituency (ECC) can cast their votes for all relevant constituencies at the polling station at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)."

On the polling day, the polling hours for the Ordinary Polling Stations, the ECC polling station, the three Dedicated Polling Stations set up at police stations and the Near Boundary Polling Stations (NBPSs) will be from 7.30am to 11.30pm. For the Dedicated Polling Stations set up at penal institutions, for security reasons, the polling hours will be from 9am to 4pm. For the Designated Polling Stations and Outreach Polling Stations for Residential Care Homes under the pilot arrangements, their polling hours are from 8.30am to 9.30pm, and from 8.30am to 6.30pm respectively.

Two queues will be set up at the polling stations. One queue is for people aged 70 or above, pregnant women and persons who are unable to queue for a long time due to physical conditions, while the other queue is for ordinary electors. Seats will be provided in the polling stations for any electors in need, and to join the queue afterwards for collecting their ballot papers.

To facilitate the voting by electors on the polling day, the Government has identified different premises nearby over 30 polling stations to provide some temporary parking spaces. Those in need may park their vehicles there for a short duration for casting their votes at the polling stations. The opening hours of the parking spaces concerned are in general from 7.30am to 11.30pm on the polling day. Electors should refer to the terms of use and the instructions of the management of the premises for the detailed arrangements that day (including the duration of free parking and the parking fee thereafter (if any)). Details of the temporary parking spaces are at annex.

On the polling day, electors can check the approximate waiting time of Ordinary Polling Stations, the ECC polling station and NBPSs on the election website (www.elections.gov.hk). Depending on the waiting time and their schedule, electors can make their own arrangements on when to vote.

Voting procedures

Most Ordinary Polling Stations will make use of the Electronic Poll Register (EPR) System to issue ballot papers. The polling procedures are very simple. Electors will be instructed by the polling staff to the issuing desks after they enter the polling station. The elector must show the original of his/her valid Hong Kong identity (HKID) card and the polling staff will scan the elector's HKID card with an EPR tablet. The elector may check his/her name, partial HKID card number and the type(s) of ballot paper(s) that he/she is entitled to on an EPR tablet for verification of information. The elector may then enter the voting compartment upon collection of the ballot paper(s).

GC electors must affix the chop provided at the polling station to mark a single 'tick' in the circle opposite the name of the candidate of their choice on the ballot paper by themselves, and then insert the unfolded ballot paper into the blue ballot box with the marked side facing down. As for FCs, electors must mark the ballot paper using the black pen provided at the polling station to fill in the oval on the ballot paper opposite the name(s) of the candidate(s) of their choice by themselves, and then insert the unfolded ballot paper into the red ballot box with the marked side facing down.

ECC electors must vote for 40 candidates, no more and no less. Otherwise, the ballot paper will be considered invalid and will not be counted. Electors must use the black pen provided at the polling station to fill in the oval opposite the names of the candidates of their choice. After marking the ballot paper, electors should use the Ballot Paper Checking Machine to check whether the number of candidates marked on the paper is 40. The machine will not record the choices marked on the ballot paper. Electors should put the ballot paper, unfolded with the marked side facing down, into the white ballot box.

The ballot is autonomous and secret. Electors must mark their ballot papers on their own in the voting compartment. If in need, electors may ask for assistance from the polling staff. Electors must not disturb others during voting, nor use electronic communication devices, take photographs or make audio or video recordings in the polling stations. Canvassing, distribution of election advertisements or displaying propaganda materials are also prohibited inside polling stations.

To ensure that electors understand the polling procedures, the REO has produced a set of TV and radio Announcements in the Public Interest which have been uploaded onto the election websitefor electors' reference.

Counting and result announcement

After the close of poll, a majority of the Ordinary Polling Stations will be changed to counting stations immediately for the counting of GC votes. For small polling stations of which less than 500 electors are assigned to vote, Dedicated Polling Stations, the ECC polling station, NBPSs, Designated Polling Stations and Outreach Polling Stations for Residential Care Homes, the GC ballot papers will be delivered to the ballot paper sorting station cum consolidated main counting stations at Kowloon Park Sports Centre for counting. The ballot boxes of all FCs and the ECC will be delivered to the Central Counting Station at the HKCEC for counting.

For the GCs, upon completion of the count, the Presiding Officer of each counting station will make known the counting results to the candidates or their agents present. Upon verification of the counting results of all counting stations in a GC, the REO will notify the Returning Officer (RO) at the Central Counting Station at HKCEC of the overall counting result for the RO to sign and declare the election results at the Media Centre. As for the FCs and ECC, once the counting of votes is completed and the election results are verified by the Statistical Information Centre, the ROs will notify the present candidates and their agents of the counting results, and sign and declare the election results at the counting zone of the Central Counting Station. The election results will be announced again by the ROs on stage of the Media Centre.

The election results will be published via press releases and the election website, as well as displaying outside the Media Centre.

Clean elections

The REO spokesman reminded that according to the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance (Cap. 554), it is illegal conduct to incite any person not to vote, to cast a blank or invalid vote by any activity in public during an election; and it is corrupt conduct if a person willfully obstructs and prevents another person from voting at an election.

For enquiries, please call the REO's hotline at 2891 1001 or visit the election website for more information on the LCGE.

The 2025 Legislative Council General Election (LCGE) will be held on December 7

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

Source: AI-found images

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Source: AI-found images