The Electoral Affairs Commission today issued the Guidelines on Election-related Activities in respect of the District Council Election.

The commission’s chairman David Lok said at a press conference that the guidelines apply to the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election (DCOE) to be held in December and District Council by-elections afterwards.

The guidelines are updated on the basis of the edition issued in September 2019.

The amendments are primarily classified into three areas. The first category reflects the amendments to relevant electoral laws, mainly the District Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2023 which covers the composition of the reformed District Council and the returning methods, and the nomination process of candidates.

The second category is the amendments made to align with other electoral guidelines while the third category is the elaboration of new electoral arrangements and procedures.

Regarding the composition of the District Councils, the 470 District Council members will be composed of appointed members, ex officio members, District Council geographical constituency (DCGC) members and District Committees constituency (DCC) members.

Among them, 179 appointed members are appointed by the Chief Executive, 27 ex officio members are filled by the 27 Chairmen of Rural Committees, while 88 DCGC members and 176 DCC members are returned by elections.

For the DCGC, there are a total of 44 DCGCs in the 18 districts. Two members will be returned for each DCGC, resulting in a total of 88 DCGC members to be returned by double seats and single vote method.

Each elector may vote for one candidate for the respective DCGC. The two candidates who obtain the greatest and the next greatest numbers of votes shall be returned as members for that DCGC.

For the newly established DCC, 176 members will be elected by the members of the District Committees who have registered as the geographical constituency electors.

The District Committees means the Area Committees, the District Fight Crime Committees and the District Fire Safety Committees, collectively known as the "three committees".

The block vote voting system is adopted. Each DCC elector must vote for no more and less than the number of vacancies for that DCC, otherwise the ballot paper will be deemed as invalid.

A candidate of a DCGC, in addition to being nominated by not less than 50 but not more than 100 electors for the DCGC, must at the same time be nominated by at least three but at most six members in each of the District Committees in the relevant district as electors for the DCC.

A candidate of a DCC does not have to be a member of the "three committees" but must be nominated by at least three but at most six members in each of the District Committees in the relevant district as electors for the DCC.

The polling hours for about 600 DCGC ordinary polling stations will be from 8.30am to 10.30pm.

As there are only about 2,500 DCC electors, the polling hours for the 18 DCC polling stations will run from 8.30am to 2.30pm.

Under the new guidelines, the commission has relaxed the deadline for requiring candidates to submit election advertisements (EAs) and consent of support from within one working day after the publication of the EAs in the past to within three working days.

Mr Lok said the move facilitates the candidates to conduct their electioneering activities, adding that the commission will closely monitor the effectiveness of the new arrangement and review it as appropriate.

The new guidelines also set out the amended maximum amount of election expenses for District Council election.

The maximum amount of election expenses for a DCC candidate is $100,000 and that for a DCGC candidate ranges from $512,400 to $951,600, depending on the size of the DCGC.

Click here for the guidelines.