Voting for the contested by- elections of nine Election Committee (EC) subsectors ended at 10:30 PM in Hong Kong Sunday.

According to a government press release Sunday night, the overall turnout only reached 14.95 percent by 10:30 PM.

A total of 39 polling stations across Hong Kong were open from 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM Sunday for some 47,000 registered voters to cast their votes in the contested by-elections of nine EC subsectors.

By-elections were held to fill vacancies in the Election Committee, which will elect a new Chief Executive on July 10.

Forty candidates ran for the 15 seats in the nine contested subsectors -- Textiles and Garment, Accountancy, Architectural, Surveying and Planning, Chinese Medicine, Engineering, Higher Education, Legal, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Hong Kong and Kowloon District Councils.

Twelve candidates have been elected unopposed in the remaining seven subsectors, which are Finance, Import and Export, Industrial (First), Industrial (Second), Labor, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Heung Yee Kuk.

Six more vacancies in the Religious Subsector have been filled by supplementary nominations.

The final results of the by-election is expected to be announced Monday.

Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) Justice Woo Kwok-hing called on voters concerned to go to the polls as early as possible Sunday morning.

The commission has also set up a complaint hotline to receive public complaints on breaches of electoral guidelines. Its service hours would extend until the close of polls at 10:30 PM.

(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2005)