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SCMP Reporter

Absentee voters

I will be doing business in China tomorrow, so I cannot vote in the district council elections.

Even if I were in Hong Kong on this Sunday, I might need to work in a district away from my home. Then still I could not vote.

I want to vote, but obstacles are in the way. This is undemocratic.

There is no mechanism in Hong Kong for absentee or special votes, and there is no provision for votes to be made outside the electoral district.

This is not democracy at work in a dynamic 'world city'. This is, 'stay at home on election day if you want democracy'. And if you have to be doing business elsewhere, then you do not want democracy.

Then a low turnout results in the 'astute' observation that people do not really want democracy.

J. KEEN, Lantau

Speeding drivers

The letter headlined 'Ticket count' (November 17) lists many traffic offences being ignored by the police. But it forgot the most important one, which is driving too fast.

This includes going 'too fast for the conditions' - within the legal speed limit.

Speed is the predominant factor in all accidents. When accident reports say a driver 'lost control of the vehicle' it means he or she was driving too fast.

Enforcement in Hong Kong focuses only on extreme speeding, whereas driving dangerously at 30-50kph or speeding between 50 and 65kph in a 50kph zone are overlooked. Yet these are the speeds presenting the greatest danger and risk to the most vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

War dead

C'mon guys, sharpen up those blue pencils. The Iraq war did not result in 174 fatalities as Cheung Kwai-yeung says in 'A question of trust' (November 20).

Almost any source, US ones included, will tell you that the fatalities were in the thousands, including Iraqi civilians and military personnel on both sides.

I am sure the number he was referring to was the number of US or coalition fatalities.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED



Letters