The Registration & Electoral Office (REO) and the Digital Policy Office (DPO) hosted a drill on technical support for regular and contingency arrangements of the Electronic Poll Register (EPR) System today.

The drill is for comprehensive preparation and detailed planning for the Election Committee Subsector By-elections to be held on September 7 and the Legislative Council General Election to be held on December 7.

The REO said that the EPR System will be used for issuing ballot papers at the two major elections this year.

It highlighted that today's drill aims to simulate monitoring of the ballot papers issuance system by the technical support teams throughout the polling day, and to test the instant response capabilities of the technical support teams and the system's resilience under special circumstances.

The drill adopts the principle of “respond instantly, recover rapidly” and combines multilayered system monitoring with a comprehensive contingency plan.

It also simulates the immediate activation of corresponding contingency plans when the system monitoring indicators exceed their pre-defined thresholds, with an aim to resume system operations within the shortest period of time and ensure the smooth issuance of ballot papers at the elections.

Commissioner for Digital Policy Tony Wong acted as the Information Technology Commander for the drill with the participation of technical support teams from the DPO and REO as well as the EPR System contractor. Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman David Lok was also present.

The REO pointed out that the relevant tasks in system development, including high-intensity stress tests and security tests, have been conducted in accordance with the EAC's three-tier confirmation mechanism.

It added that it has submitted the system modifications and testing results to the Technical Advisory Committee for consideration and endorsement.