Consultation on rural poll starts

July 11, 2022

Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Barnabas Fung:

The nomination form has all along contained two declarations: one, to uphold the Basic Law and two, to swear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. They have always been there for a long time. 

There came a point where we saw that there was a necessity to explain to the candidates, or the intended candidates, to fully understand the basis, as well as the consequence of these two declarations. Hence, we issued a confirmation form principally to explain to them the basis and consequences of signing the two declarations. 

Since then the situation has moved on, we have the decisions of the National People's Congress, which have entailed amendments of our law, especially Chapter One, the Interpretation & General Clauses Ordinance, which set out what are the basis and the consequences and also instances of not upholding the Basic Law.

That is why they need only to sign one comprehensive document, which is the nomination form and all the explanation and consequences have been fully and clearly set out. And hence there is no need to sign separately the confirmation form. Or you could say that the confirmation form is now subsumed into the electoral documents of the nomination form.

The public consultation on the proposed guidelines for the Rural Representative Election scheduled for early next year has started and will be held until August 9 this year, the Electoral Affairs Commission announced today.

At a press conference, Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman Barnabas Fung said the proposed guidelines are prepared on the basis of the Guidelines on Election-related Activities in respect of the Rural Representative Election released in October 2018, with appropriate and necessary amendments.

In next year’s rural ordinary election, legal provisions in relation to upholding the Basic Law will be clearly stated in the nomination form. Reference of upholding it and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be added to the form to ensure candidates fully understand the legal requirements and responsibilities concerned when they sign it.

Mr Fung said: “We have the decisions of the National People's Congress, which have entailed amendments of our law, especially Chapter One, the Interpretation & General Clauses Ordinance, which set out what are the basis and the consequences and also instances of not upholding the Basic Law.

“That is why they need only to sign one comprehensive document, which is the nomination form and all the explanation and consequences have been fully and clearly set out. And hence there is no need to sign separately the confirmation form.”

Mr Fung pointed out that the proposed guidelines also include changes to the counting arrangements. Polling and counting stations will be set up for the rural ordinary election wherein Presiding Officers will take up the responsibility for the counting of votes in lieu of Returning Officers.

The polling stations will be turned into counting stations for the counting of votes after the poll closes to save the delivery time of ballot papers and speed up the counting process, he added.

A total of 1,484 village representatives, comprising 695 Resident Representatives and 789 Indigenous Inhabitant Representatives, will be returned for 709 villages in the election, while 39 and 17 Kaifong Representatives will be returned for the market towns of Cheung Chau and Peng Chau.