THE Hong Kong Electoral Affairs Commission announced in the early yesterday that the counting of ballots in the third-term District Council election had been completed and 364 candidates had won in their contested constituencies.

The announcement by the Electoral Affairs Commission came at about 4:45 a.m. Beijing Time yesterday as it took more than five hours to complete the ballot-counting process, which began at 10:30 p.m. Sunday immediately after the voting ended.

More than 1.14 million registered voters cast their votes in the election for the third-term District Council in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), about 70,000 more than those in the 2003 election, according to the Electoral Affairs Commission.

Hong Kong has 18 District Councils and the third-term District Councils are composed of 534 members, including 405 elected members, 102 appointed members and 27 ex-officio members.

DAB party was the big winner in this year's District Council elections with the party winning almost double the number of seats it gained in the last election four years ago -- 115 from a total of 405, local radio reported.

About 60 seats went to the Democratic Party -- representing a success rate of 55.5 percent -- down from 79 percent in 2003.

A quarter of the 56 Liberal Party candidates won seats in the election. And Civic Party members won nine seats.

Lau Kong-wah, DAB vice chairman, said the results were good and showed that many of its younger members had won the support of voters.

Candidates in 41 of the 405 constituencies were elected unopposed while the remaining 364 seats in the 18 District Councils were contested by 866 candidates.

The District Council election follows the first-past-the post voting system, under which the candidate who receives the largest number of votes will be elected. All Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or above who are ordinarily residing in Hong Kong are eligible to register to vote.

The functions of district councils include advising the HKSAR government on matters affecting the well-being of the people in the district and the use of public funds allocated to the district for local public works and community activities.

Where funds are made available, a district council also undertakes environmental improvements and the promotion of recreational and cultural activities as well as community activities.

Voting began from 7:30 a.m. Saturday and ended at 10:30 p.m. Sunday as 1.14 million voters, including HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang, flocked to 480 polling stations to cast their votes.

(SD-Xinhua)