This March 12, 2021 photo shows the exterior of the headquarters of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the Legislative Council in Hong Kong. (LI GANG / XINHUA)

A total of 111,000 Hong Kong residents living on the Chinese mainland will be able to cast their votes at polling stations to be set up at the Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Heung Yuen Wai border checkpointsfor the legislative election on Dec 19, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai announced on Monday.

The three checkpoints, which have been closed since February 2020 because of the travel restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, will be opened on the voting day to allow electors residing on the mainland to cast their ballots. The voters can return to the mainland without serving the compulsory quarantine.

The one-off arrangement applies only to registered electors for geographical constituencies and functional constituencies. The two constituencies will return 50 lawmakers in the 90-seat legislature.

The 1,448 Election Committee members, who will elect the remaining 40, will vote at a dedicated polling station in Wan Chai’s Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The SAR government will allocate a total of 111,000 entry quotas on a first-come, first-served basis, with 42,000 in Lo Wu port, 36,000 in Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and 33,000 in Heung Yuen Wai port, said Tsang.

The polling stations were not allocated at the operating ports — in Hong Kong International Airport, Shenzhen Bay and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge — to minimize the risks of spreading the virus, Tsang said. The closed ports also provide more operating space, he added. 

The SAR government will allocate a total of 111,000 entry quotas on a first-come, first-served basis, with 42,000 in Lo Wu port, 36,000 in Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and 33,000 in Heung Yuen Wai port, said Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai

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Voters have to register for an entry quota from 9 am on Wednesday to 6 pm on Dec 8 and indicate which checkpoints they will be at.

Michael Wong Pang, a 43-year-old Hong Kong entrepreneur who runs a cross-border logistics company in Shenzhen, welcomed the border voting arrangement. Wong said he will register to vote at the polling station in Lo Wu, the nearest port to his home in Shenzhen.

Voters cannot enter the Hong Kong community beyond the checkpoint area and have to return to the mainland once they cast their ballots, Tsang said. People not involved with election work will be prohibited from entering the ports on the voting day.

Votes cast at the polling stations at the border will be counted there. Candidates and their agents can apply to enter these polling stations to observe the counting process.

Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, believes the oneoff arrangement sets an example for Hong Kong’s future elections. As more and more Hong Kong people live on the mainland, more measures could be taken to facilitate them to exercise their rights.

It has also sent a message to Hong Kong people living on the mainland that the SAR government still cares about them, Lau said.

Also on Monday, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said arrest warrants were issued for activists Ted Hui Chi-fung and Yau Man-chun, as they are suspected of “engaging (in) illegal conduct of inciting another person not to vote, or to cast (an) invalid vote, by (their) 0activity in public” since Oct 30.

READ MORE: Checkpoint polling stations welcomed by HK people

The duo, both 39, have said on their social media pages targeting swing voters that voters should cast blank ballots or boycott voting altogether. The ICAC has urged members of the public not to repost any unlawful content in order to uphold  a fair and clean election.