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The Electoral Affairs Commission (Financial Assistance for Legislative Council Elections) (Application and Payment Procedure) (Amendment) Regulation 2007, which provides for the operational procedures of financial assistance for District Council election candidates, will be gazetted on Friday (May 11).
Financial assistance for election candidates was first introduced in the 2004 Legislative Council (Legco) election. To encourage more public-spirited candidates to participate in public elections and to cultivate an environment to facilitate the development of political talent in Hong Kong, the financial assistance scheme will be extended to District Council election candidates.
It will come into effect from this year's District Council elections.
"The District Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2007, which was passed by the Legco on January 17, 2007, provides the legal basis to implement the financial assistance scheme for District Council election candidates," a spokesman for the commission said today (May 8).
Under the Amendment Ordinance, the amount of financial assistance payable to a candidate in a contested constituency in a District Council election is $10 times the total number of valid votes he has obtained, or half of his declared election expenses, whichever is lower.
For a candidate in an uncontested constituency, the amount payable is $10 times 50% of the number of registered electors for that constituency, or half of his declared election expenses, whichever is lower.
"The application and payment procedures of the scheme for District Council election candidates are basically the same as those of the existing scheme for Legco election candidates. The only difference is that a District Council election candidate will not be required to submit an auditor's report on the accounts in his election return when making the claim," the spokesman said.
"Due to the small electorate size of a District Council election constituency, the amount of financial assistance received by a candidate will be much smaller than that received by a Legco election candidate."
"If a mandatory auditing requirement is imposed on District Council election candidates who apply for financial assistance, the auditing fee will take up a significant proportion of the financial assistance payable to each candidate. This will undermine the objective of the scheme. In view of this, District Council election candidates will not be required to submit auditor's reports on their account of election expenses," the spokesman said.
"To safeguard public expenditure, the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) will endeavour to check whether the election returns submitted by the applicants comply with the relevant requirements. Where necessary, the REO will require the applicants to provide further information. For cases which require more in-depth checking, the REO will refer to an outside audit firm for further checking," the spokesman said.
The amendment regulation will be tabled at Legco on May 16 for negative vetting. Subject to the passage of the amendment regulation, it will come into operation on September 1.
Ends/Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:33
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