A total of 52 candidates have been cleared for the Election Committee subsector by-elections.

The list of validly nominated candidates and the results of the supplementary nominations for six vacancies in the Religious Subsector were gazetted today.

The by-elections and supplementary nominations are being held to fill 33 vacancies in the Election Committee, which will elect a new Chief Executive on July 10.

Forty candidates are running for the 15 seats in the nine contested subsectors, namely:

* Textiles & Garments;

* Accountancy;

* Architectural, Surveying & Planning;

* Chinese Medicine;

* Engineering;

* Higher Education;

* Legal;

* Agriculture & Fisheries; and

* Hong Kong & Kowloon District Councils.

Twelve candidates have been elected unopposed in the remaining seven subsectors, which are Finance, Import & Export, Industrial (First), Industrial (Second), Labour, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Heung Yee Kuk.

Polling for the nine contested subsectors will be held on May 1. Registered voters will each be sent a poll card with a map indicating which polling station to visit.

Registered voters in uncontested subsectors will be sent a notice of uncontested nomination, informing them that they need not go to the polls.

Six people nominated by religious bodies

The gazette notice also declared that six people, put forward in supplementary nominations by related religious bodies, have been validly nominated as members of the Election Committee for the Religious Subsector.