CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
16
For functional constituency elections, a candidate must, besides satisfying the usual age and residential requirements, be a registered functional elector of or have a substantial connection with the relevant functional constituency. Each nomination requires 50 subscribers for the nine functional constituencies representing the working population (i.e. functional constituencies (1) to (9) in the preceding paragraph, which were introduced in the 1995 elections) and 10 for the other functional constituencies, except for the Urban Council and Regional Council functional constituencies which require only five subscribers due to their small electorates. Elections for the Urban Council, Regional Council and Rural functional constituencies are by preferential elimination, while elections for the other functional constituencies are by simple majority.
The Election Committee, comprising all elected district board members, elects 10 Legislative Council Members. The qualifications for candidature in the Election Committee constituency election are the same as those for the geographical con- stituency elections, except that each nomination requires five subscribers. Elections for the Election Committee are by the Single Transferable Vote System.
Electoral System for the Municipal Councils and the District Boards
All appointed seats in the Urban Council, Regional Council and district boards have been abolished and elections to these bodies are on a geographical basis. There are 18 district boards (elected in September 1994) with 346 members elected from single-seat constituencies. In the New Territories, the 27 Rural Committee chairmen are ex - -officio members of the respective district boards.
For the Urban Council, 32 members are elected from geographical, single-seat constituencies, and one each from the nine urban district boards. The Regional Council has 27 members elected from single-seat, geographical constituencies, and nine from the nine New Territories district boards. There are also three ex officio members: the chairman and the two vice-chairmen of the Heung Yee Kuk.
Elections to the district boards and the municipal councils are by simple majority. Electors may vote only in the constituency in which they are registered. The qualifications for candidature in the district board and municipal council elections are the same as those for the Legislative Council geographical constituency elections, except that each nomination requires 10 subscribers.
Boundary and Election Commission
The independent and apolitical Boundary and Election Commission, operating under the Boundary and Election Commission Ordinance since July 1993, reviews and makes recommendations to the Governor on the geographical constituency boundaries of the Legislative Council, the municipal councils, and the district boards. The three-member commission is also responsible for overseeing the conduct and supervision of elections, keeping under review the procedure for these elections and the arrangements for registration of electors to ensure that the elections are conducted openly, honestly and fairly.
Several major tasks were accomplished during the commission's busy third year of operation. In March 1995, it organised and supervised the municipal councils elections. A report on the elections was submitted to the Governor in May 1995 in accordance with statutory requirements. Improvements to the electoral arrangements