News from GITPA (June 2022)

MEETING WITH THE REGISTRATION AND ELECTORAL OFFICE

The meeting between GITPA and the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) was held on 9 June 2022.  Before the meeting, we had passed our collected comments to REO for their reference.  We reflected our comments and deliberated suggestions for the 2021 Legislative Council General Election (LCGE 2021), as highlighted below –

• Define clear roles and responsibilities of APRO(IT) as an IT coordinator role for supervising the Electronic Poll Register (EPR) System setup at the polling stations instead of conducting hands-on tasks by themselves;
• Secure capable and experienced IT technicians to support the EPR System setup at the polling stations;
• Engage more than one vendors for IT technicians and equipment logistics to share the workload and risks;
• Enlarge the pool for APRO(IT) such as to consider Computer Operator grade, EMSD technical staff, ITMU officers other than AP, and T-contract staff;
• Review and redefine the roles and responsibilities of other electoral staff to provide necessary support and backup to APRO(IT);
• Strengthen Elite Team and distribute more team members for regional support such as incident handling and helpdesk responses to improve the problem-solving efficiency;
• Improve the logistics support such that adequate equipment for supporting the EPR System setup could be arranged;
• Arrange on-site inspections (recce) with APRO(IT) or Elite Team and/or provide photos and site sketch with the LAN port and power socket location clearly marked well before the Set-up Day for planning the EPR System setup; and
• Provide sufficient training but extend the training period to avoid drawing staff from their offices extensively 2 weeks before the Polling Day.

In the meeting, the REO expressed appreciation to the professional supporting efforts from APRO(IT)s and the Elite Team contributed to the success of LCGE 2021.  The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) appreciated our constructive comments, and was very impressed that over 300 AP Grade staff provided their valuable suggestions in every part.  It would be helpful for their review and consolidation to improve the future election arrangement.

As the labour union of the AP Grade staff, we stand ready to embrace views from members and represent members to liaise with Grade Management and other parties.  Please allow us to represent you by joining and supporting the GITPA.  Without you, our power would not be strong enough.  To join us or renew your membership, please contact your site representative or GITPA’s membership secretary at https://gitpa.org.hk/membership-application-renewal/.

GITPA ExCo 2022-23