In response to the community's concern about a number of alleged mishaps in the 2004 Legislative Council election, a report will be submitted to the Chief Executive as soon as practicable, the Electoral Affairs Commission says.

The Commission has for the past fortnight been working on inquiries into 40 of the complaints filed by candidates/agents or members of the public in this regard, and aims to submit its report to the Chief Executive well before the statutory three-month deadline.

The subjects of the inquiries included incidents such as using cardboard boxes to hold ballot papers in a couple of polling stations, the temporary suspension of polling in a polling station, agents asked to leave polling stations that were being converted into counting stations and the inaccessibility of a polling station to the disabled.

Noting the small size of the polling station in Ying Wa Girls' School resulting in long queues of electors, Commission Chairman Justice Woo Kwok-hing has personally visited the school to make alternative arrangements and will review whether the same venue should be used in future.

Turning to the contingency measure to allow Presiding Officers to open ballot boxes in the presence of polling agents or witnesses and rearrange the ballots to make room for more ballots, the Commission said this has to be done to prevent voting in polling stations from being disrupted because of a shortage of ballot boxes.

The Commission's directive to take the contingency measure was based on its power and lawful authority conferred by sections 4(b), 4(h) and 5(g) of the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance.