Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa says he hopes to co-operate with the new Legislative Council members to foster Hong Kong's economic prosperity and social stability.

The Legislative Council Election polls opened at 7.30am today. A total of 501 polling stations were open until 10.30pm for about 3.2 million registered electors to cast their votes. About 1.7 million voters participated in the polls.

Mr Tung and his wife Betty cast their votes at Hong Kong Park Sports Centre Polling Station in Central this morning.

Civic right: Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, and Financial Secretary Henry Tang cast their votes.

Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang believed voters will be able to elect appropriate candidates to the council.

Noting every vote is equally important, Mr Tsang said the election will affect how the council protects Hong Kong people's interest in the future.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang said voters' enthusiastic response to the election showed that Hong Kong people want to play a more active role in politics.

He said the Government will work with the new council members to build a better Hong Kong.

Election a new milestone for HK

Mr Lam said today's election marks a new milestone for Hong Kong's constitutional development as the number of seats in the five geographical constituencies has increased from 24 to 30.

Electoral Affairs Commission chief Justice Woo Kwok-hing urged candidates to follow the election rules and guidelines.

Up to September 10, the commission had received 985 complaints about the election activities. People can lodge complaints by calling the Registration & Electoral Office's hotline, 2827 7251.

Record number of candidates contesting

A total of 35 lists of 88 candidates contested 30 seats in the five geographical constituencies. There are six seats in Hong Kong Island, five seats in Kowloon East, four seats in Kowloon West, seven seats in New Territories East and eight seats in New Territories West.

Another 60 candidates competed for 19 seats in 17 functional constituencies. Eleven other functional constituencies had their candidates elected unopposed.

Most polling stations to become counting stations

Most of the polling stations were turned into counting stations for geographical constituency votes after the polls closed, except for 16 small polling stations with less than 500 registered electors.

The ballot boxes of these small polling stations were sealed and taken under police escort to a designated main counting station where ballot papers of the main and small stations were to be mixed before vote counting began.

After the votes are counted, the tallies will be reported to the relevant Returning Officers stationed at the International Trade & Exhibition Centre in Kowloon Bay, who will announce the election results there.