EAC Chairman visits Returning Officer's office of District Council Ordinary Election (with photos)

The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:

The 2023 District Council Ordinary Election will be held on December 10 (Sunday). The nomination period for the election will run from tomorrow (October 17) to October 30.

The Chairman of the Election Affairs Commission, Mr Justice David Lok, today (October 16) visited the Returning Officer's office at the Central and Western District Office where nomination forms will be received. He inspected the procedures for receiving nomination forms and the preparatory work at the venue.

     Mr Justice Lok said, "Arrangements at the offices of the Returning Officers at 18 Districts are all ready and the staff will ensure smooth operation of the work of receiving nomination forms starting from tomorrow."

     Mr Justice Lok had already held a briefing earlier (October 3) for the Returning Officers where he highlighted the important roles and responsibilities of the Returning Officers and reminded the Returning Officers to carry out the electoral work in strict compliance with the relevant electoral laws and guidelines to ensure that the election will be conducted in an open, fair and honest manner.

     A nominee for the District Council geographical constituency (DCGC) election and the District Committees constituency (DCC) election must be a registered geographical constituency elector aged 21 or above. They must also have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for three years immediately preceding the date of the nomination.

     Each prospective candidate for the DCC election must be subscribed by at least three but not more than six members from each of the District Committees (i.e. the Area Committee, the District Fight Crime Committee and the District Fire Safety Committee (collectively known as the "three committees")) in the relevant District as electors for the DCC. Each DCC elector may nominate up to the number of candidates to be returned for the respective DCC in the District. A candidate for the DCC election needs not be a member of the "three committees".

For the DCGC election, a prospective candidate must be subscribed by at least 50 but not more than 100 registered electors for the DCGC concerned and also be subscribed by at least three but not more than six members of each of the three District Committees in the relevant District as DCC electors. A DCGC elector may nominate only one candidate in his/her own DCGC. But if a DCGC elector is also a DCC elector, he/she can also nominate one candidate in each DCGC in the relevant District as a DCC elector.

     Completed nomination forms and the election deposit of $3,000 must be submitted by the nominees in person to the Returning Officer for the constituency concerned between 9am and 5pm from Mondays to Fridays and between 9am and noon on Saturdays within the nomination period. Nominees are advised to submit their nominations as early as possible to allow time to correct mistakes, if any, in the nomination forms before the end of the nomination period.

     Nomination forms are available at the District Offices, and the offices of the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) (8/F, Treasury Building, 3 Tonkin Street West, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon or Unit 2301-03, 23/F, Millennium City 6, 392 Kwun Tong Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon). They can also be downloaded from the REO website (www.reo.gov.hk) and the election website (www.elections.gov.hk).

     For enquiries, please call the election hotline on 2891 1001 or visit the election website.