Queue here for the polo shirt poll
Fair, open and honest; free souvenirs and 40 per cent off.
Whether it was children urging their parents to collect the election souvenir cards or Giordano's discount offer, officials' pleas for people to vote did not go unheeded.
'My son asked me to vote to get a card for him - he is very eager to own a set. He asked his father and I to go and vote a week ago,' one mother outside a Tsuen Wan polling station said.
But the souvenir card scheme looked like becoming more of an embarrassment as polling stations ran out and officials were left to take voters' addresses.
Officials denied they had underestimated the turnout and said more cards would be manufactured for voters.
'They will endure the disappointment only for a day or two,' Director of Home Affairs Shelley Lau Lee Lai-kuen said.
Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, Electoral Affairs Commission chairman, said: 'We prepared souvenir cards on the assumption of 50 per cent of total voters. We thought it was quite safe based on previous turnout.' Giordano was offering a 40 per cent discount yesterday on all clothes at its 50 branches to customers who could present the commemorative card given to all voters.
The deal boosted sales at some shops by more than 30 per cent.
Kowloon Bay branch supervisor Jenny Lok said: 'The response has been good. I would say sales at my store were up by one-third compared with that of normal Sundays.' At the packed shop in Taikoo Shing, Queenie Lee Lau Mei-kuen admitted the card and the shopping discount persuaded her to vote. 'I was going to stay at home after seeing the storm warnings but my son's friend told him about the discounts and the certificates, and he wanted them. I decided it was worth coming out, and I see a lot of other people have done the same.' Lingnan College political science lecturer Li Pang-kwong said: 'The commemorative card and the 40 per cent discount undoubtedly persuaded more people to vote.'
