Rural Poll Candidates May Get One Less Form To Sign

Officials have proposed combining into one the nomination form for the Rural Representative Election and a separate document that requires a would-be-candidate to confirm that he or she would uphold the Basic Law.

This is one of the recommendations put forward by the Electoral Affairs Commission as it kicks off a 30-day public consultation on the proposed guidelines for next year's polls to elect nearly 1,500 village representatives.

At a press conference on Monday, the commission's chairman, Barnabus Fung, said would-be candidates have always had to state on the nomination form that they would uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR.

Fung said authorities introduced the confirmation form some years ago because they felt that it was necessary for them to explain the requirements and the consequences of violating the declaration.

However, "the situation has moved on," Fung said, pointing out that the National People's Congress changed Hong Kong's electoral system last year and set out the consequences for those who do not uphold the Basic Law.

"That's why they only need to sign one comprehensive document, which is the nomination form, and all the explanations and consequences have been fully and clearly set out ... or, you could say the confirmation form is now subsumed into the election document of the nomination form," Fung said.

Officials also say they don't plan to use the electronic voting register for the rural elections to be held early next year, saying the Legco polls last year showed that mobile signals are weak in remote areas.

Fung said the impact would be minimal as the election doesn't involve a lot of polling stations and voters anyway.