The Hong Kong Electoral Affairs Commission said Monday morning that the counting of ballot papers from 326 constituencies in the district council elections was completed at 4:15 Monday.

Local media reported that of the 400 elected district council members, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) has 78, the Liberal Party has 12 and the Democratic Party has 93.

Over 1.06 million registered voters cast their votes in the second district council election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Sunday, 249,000 more than that of in 1999 elections.

According to press release from the government, the turnout rate was over 44.06 percent, up 8.26 percentage points over that of the 1999 district council elections.

A total of 423 polling stations across Hong Kong were open from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday for electors. The four-year term of the new district councils will start on Jan. 1, 2004.

The HKSAR has 18 district councils, with 529 members. Of those members, 400 are elected ones, 27 are ex-officio members while 120are appointed members.

The vote-counting process took six hours to complete after polling ended Sunday night.

Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission Woo Kwok-hing said his commission would submit a report to Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa on matters relating to the election within the next three months.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2003)