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Maximum Scale of Election Expenses (Municipal Council) Order 1994
Following is the speech by the Acting Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council motion debate on Maximum Scale of Election Expenses (Municipal Councils) Order 1994 today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
The basic principle of determining the maximum scale of election expenses has been accepted over the years. It is to strike a balance; it should not be so low as to hamper candidates from conducting effective campaigns, nor so high as to deter those who are financially less well-off from contesting the elections.
In accordance with this basic principle, the Administration has determined that the maximum scale of election expenses, last determined at $70,000 for the 1991 Municipal Council elections, should be revised to $100,000 for 1995. This takes into account the common range of items of election expenses such as the printing of publicity material, and the production of banners, placards and posters. It has regard to the fact that inflation in these items has gone up by about 40% over the years, as well as the increasing sophistication of campaigning, and the size of the Municipal Council constituencies in 1995. It is a reasonable figure.
But this time round, we have proposed a new element, i.e. on top of the normal level of election expenses, we consider that an additional limit of $20,000 should be permitted for expenditure on replacing damaged or stolen publicity material such as banners, placards and posters. This takes into account comments by candidates at the last round of DB elections. Hitherto, the cost of replacing these material had to be included as part of the normal limit on election expenses. It has been argued that this is unfair, since it is usually not the candidates' fault that their publicity material are damaged. Indeed, it may sometimes be due to inclement weather. We believe that there is force in their arguments; hence our proposal.