XN000022-1995-02-22 — Page 17

"Firm recommendations will be put to the Governor-in-Council for approval in early May in the light of comments received. Our aim is to complete the necessary legislative process in June so that candidates will know for certain where they stand in good time before the elections," he said.

Mr Ng said the Government proposed that the current ceiling of $200,000 should remain for the geographical elections.

"This proposal recognises the fact that whilst constituency sizes for the 1995 Legislative Council will only be about half that of the existing ones, inflation has gone up by about 50 per cent in the past four years or so.

"A margin should also be built in to allow for more sophisticated, and therefore more expensive, electioneering activities which have become more common in recent years," he said.

For all existing functional constituencies except the Urban Council, the Regional Council, and the Rural constituencies, the Government proposes a ceiling of $80,000.

"This proposal is principally an adjustment of the current ceiling of $50,000 to off-set inflation," Mr Ng said.

For the Urban Council, Regional Council and the Rural functional constituencies, the Government again proposed status quo, that is, a ceiling of $50,000, he said.

Mr Ng explained that having regard to the small franchises of these three constituencies and past pattern on election expenses, the Government believed that this figure should be sufficient to meet candidates' campaigning requirements.

For the nine new functional constituencies, he said the Government proposed a ceiling of $180,000.

"This figure reflects the relatively large electorate sizes of these constituencies, averaging about 300,000, and the fact that electors are scattered in different parts of Hong Kong," he said.

Lastly, for the Election Committee, Mr Ng said the Government proposed a ceiling of $50,000 on account of the size of its franchise.

Mr Ng said election expense limits for Legislative Council, Municipal Council and District Board elections set the maximum which candidates for these elections might spend on their campaigns.