Poll position: Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam says expanded election subsidies will encourage more people to stand in the 2007 District Council polls.

To encourage participation in public elections and to groom more political talent in Hong Kong, financial assistance to candidates at a rate of $10 per vote has been proposed for the 2007 District Council polls.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said today the Executive Council has approved to extend the 2004 Legislative Council election financial assistance scheme to the 2007 District Council elections.

As the LegCo geographical constituency elections and the District Council elections are both geographical, and the nature and methods of electioneering activities are similar, Mr Lam said the same level of financial assistance - $10 per vote, capped at 50% of a candidate's actual election expenses - has been proposed.

The bureau also proposed to apply the same threshold - 5% of valid votes - to the proposed financial assistance scheme.

In cases of uncontested constituencies, the Constitutional Affairs Bureau proposed to set the subsidy amount by multiplying half of the number of registered electors for the constituency by the specified rate of $10 per vote, also capped by 50% of the declared election expenses of the candidate.

Also, the bureau proposed to maintain the one round of free mailing service for candidates after the introduction of the scheme.

Mr Lam said the scheme will encourage more people to stand in the elections, giving voters more choice.

Other measures have also been introduced to boost participation, like increasing the number of direct election seats from 400 to 405. Mr Lam expects the elections to be more exciting, but said it is too early to estimate the number of candidates.

Expense total

On the total amount of financial assistance, he said it will depend on the actual number of candidates, the votes obtained by each and their actual election expenses. However, using the 2003 election figures as reference, Mr Lam estimated the total amount of financial assistance will be around $6.75 million.

The bureau said if the proposed scheme is applied to the 2003 election, 46% of the eligible candidates would receive a subsidy equivalent to up to 50% of their election expenses. The median of the amount of subsidy will be $8,470 and 49% of the eligible candidates will receive an amount over $9,000.