A three-week voter registration campaign under the nomination exercise for arts representatives in the Hong Kong Arts Development Council has started.

Specified arts organisations are urged to submit voter registration forms on behalf of their members as early as possible so as to allow time for amendments, if any.

As Council members' current term of office will expire on December 31, the Government has launched an exercise for the nomination of arts interests representatives so that the Chief Executive may appoint up to 10 people nominated by the specified arts interests to be Council members for the new term.

The Home Affairs Bureau said the nomination exercise has moved into its second phase of voter registration after registration as members of the nominating bodies of the respective arts interests has been completed in July.

The Bureau said there is overwhelming response from the arts community this year, as 329 members were newly registered as nominating bodies, bringing the total number to 768, reflecting a substantial increase of about 75% over the figures in 2001. A full members list was published in the Gazette today.

Of the 768 nominating bodies, the number of individual arts workers surged by about 158% to 456 from 177 in 2001, while 312 arts organisations have registered as members of nominating bodies, up 19% from 262 in 2001.

The figures reflect the growing involvement of arts organisations as well as individual arts workers in the development of the local arts scene.

The arts workers will automatically qualify as voters while the 312 arts organisations are necessary to help their own members register as voters to take part in the election to be held in late October or early November.

All voters are qualified to nominate candidates, seek a candidacy themselves, and cast votes in the poll later to nominate one representative from each of the maximum 10 specified arts interests groups.

The 10 specified arts interests comprise arts administration, arts criticism, arts education, Chinese opera (Xiqu), dance, drama, film arts, literary arts, music and visual arts.

The Home Affairs Bureau has commissioned PR Concepts Company Limited to be the organiser and nomination agent for this exercise. Starting next week, specified arts organisations will receive voter-registration and candidate-registration application forms, while specified individuals will receive voter-notification letters and candidate-registration application forms.

Those who do not receive this material by the end of next week may contact the nomination agent at 2520 2690 or by fax on 2520 5535.

Established as a statutory body in June 1995, the Council shoulders the responsibility of planning, promoting and developing the arts in Hong Kong. It also oversee an annual government subvention of more than $100 million, which is earmarked to support various projects by local arts organisations and arts workers.