Photo: CFP

All 399 candidates seeking to run in next month's District Council Ordinary Election met the legal requirements and conditions for upholding the Basic Law and bearing allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and were determined their nominations as valid, according to the government of HKSAR on Friday.

The nomination period for the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election, which began on October 17, ended on October 30. The returning officers for the 18 district committee constituencies and 44 District Council geographical constituencies received a total of 399 nomination forms during the nomination period (excluding one nominee who withdrew from the election). The District Council Eligibility Review Committee (DCERC) finished reviewing the nominations of 399 candidates and considered that the nominations of all the candidates valid, according to a  press release from the HKSAR government on Friday.

The DCERC published a notice in the Gazette Friday, with names, addresses and candidate numbers of 399 candidates who were determined to be validly nominated in fulfilment of the legal requirement.

In accordance with section 10B of the District Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2023, the DCERC is responsible for reviewing and confirming the eligibility of any person proposed to be appointed as a district council member, registered as an ex-officio member, or nominated as a candidate for District Councils elections.

The District Councils (Amendment) Ordinance 2023 came into effect on July 10, enabling the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" to also be fully implemented at the district governance level, Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

The seventh-term District Councils will have 470 seats, comprising 179 appointed members, 176 District Committee constituency members, 88 District Council geographical constituency members, and 27 ex-officio members. The term of office is four years.

The District Council Ordinary Election will be held on December 10 to elect the 176 seats in the district committee constituencies and the 88 seats in the geographical constituencies. 

Global Times