A bill to provide a legal basis for a financial assistance scheme for District Council election candidates will be tabled at the Legislative Council on December 20, the Constitutional Affairs Bureau says.

The District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2006 will be gazetted tomorrow. Under it, the amount of financial assistance payable to a candidate in a contested constituency is $10 each vote, capped by 50% of the declared election expenses of the candidate.

In an uncontested constituency, the amount of financial assistance payable is the amount obtained by multiplying 50% of the number of registered electors for the constituency by $10, capped by 50% of the declared election expenses of the candidate.

The formula for calculating the amount of financial assistance is the same as the one adopted in the existing scheme for Legislative Council election candidates, except the amount of financial assistance is not capped by the difference between the election expenses and election donations of a candidate.

After considering feedback from legislators and the public in calculating the amount of assistance a candidate can receive, any election donations the candidate may have received will not be taken into account. Similar changes will be made to the financial assistance scheme for LegCo election candidates.

After the passage of the bill, the Electoral Affairs Commission will make regulations under the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance to set out the detailed operational procedures of the scheme, which will be implemented from the 2007 District Councils election onwards.