C199
ELECTIONS (MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS) BILL
Explanatory Memorandum
This Bill amends a number of Ordinances and items of subsidiary legislation in order to
(a) introduce the terms Urban Council area and Regional Council area for purposes related to the District Boards, Urban Council and proposed Regional Council;
(b) provide for direct elections to the Regional Council; and
(c) achieve consistency in the laws relating to elections to District Boards, the
Urban Council, the Regional Council and the Legislative Council. Part I of the Bill is preliminary.
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Part II contains amendments to the District Boards Ordinance (Cap. 366). Clause 2 introduces definitions of "Regional Council area" and "Urban Council area", and deletes the terms "New Territories District” and “New Territories District Board". Clause 3, inserting a new section 3A, provides that the Governor in Council may by order declare, by reference to Districts, areas of Hong Kong to be the Urban Council area and the Regional Council area. It is proposed that the Urban Council area will comprise the present urban areas Districts, and the Regional Council area will comprise the present New Territories Districts. Clause 4 is a consequential amendment to insert the new terms in section 6.
4. Clause 5 amends section 8 of the District Boards Ordinance to clarify references in the section to "ordinary election" and "by-election" in the context of District Board elections.
5. Clauses 6 and 7 make minor changes to provisions of the District Boards Ordinance relating to the disqualification of appointed and ex officio members in order to clarify existing grounds of disqualification arising from a connexion with a government outside Hong Kong and to add unsoundness of mind as a further ground of disqualification. Clauses 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 make minor amendments to provisions relating to acceptance of office, resignations, the temporary substitution of appointed members and casual vacancies.
6. Clause 12 amends section 15 of the District Boards Ordinance to clarify a reference in the section to an "ordinary election" and to provide that a District Officer shall preside over the first meeting of a District Board after an ordinary election until the election of the Chairman. Clause 14 consequentially amends various Orders and Notices made under the Ordinance.
7. Part III contains amendments to the Electoral Provisions Ordinance (Cap. 367). Clause 15 amends the long title of the Ordinance to include a reference to the proposed Regional Council. Clause 16 provides for a number of new or revised definitions arising from the extension of the Ordinance to Regional Council elections and from the introduction, in the District Boards Ordinance, of the terms “Urban Council area" and "Regional Council area". Clause 16(j) excludes from the applica- tion of the Ordinance elections to the Regional Council of representative members from District Boards.
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Clause 17, amending section 3 of the Electoral Provisions Ordinance, enables the Governor in Council to declare areas of Districts in the Regional Council area to be constituencies for elections to the Regional Council. Clause 18 amends section 11 of the Ordinance, which concerns the disqualification of electors, to make more specific provision in relation to unsoundness of mind as a ground for disqualification.
9. Clause 19 provides for 2 minor technical amendments relating to the registers of electors. Dates for publication of the provisional and final registers are fixed and the registration officer is empowered to correct minor errors in a register.
10. Clause 20 amends section 19 of the Electoral Provisions Ordinance which relates to grounds of disqualification for nomination or holding office. Besides extending the section to elections for the Regional Council, the amendments provide
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