Chairman of Hong Kong's Electoral Affairs Commission Justice David Lok conducts a briefing for the candidates of the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election in Hong Kong, Nov 13, 2023. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVT)

HONG KONG – The head of Hong Kong’s Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) conducted a briefing on Monday night for the candidates of the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election on the electoral arrangements, guidelines on election-related activities and important points to note in running their electioneering activities.

“The District Council Eligibility Review Committee published the notices of validly nominated candidates in the Gazette on Nov 10 to declare that all nominations are valid,” Justice David Lok said at the briefing.

READ MORE: All 399 nominations ruled valid for Hong Kong's DC election

Scheduled for Dec 10, the polls will be conducted for all of the 44 District Council geographical constituencies (DCGCs) and 18 District Committees constituencies (DCCs), with a total of 264 seats.

The EAC will strive to ensure that the election will be conducted in an open, honest and fair manner same as in the past.

Justice David Lok, Chairman, Electoral Affairs Commission

There will be more than 600 DCGC ordinary polling stations, 18 DCC polling stations and a maximum of 48 dedicated polling stations for the election, according to the government.

“The EAC will strive to ensure that the election will be conducted in an open, honest and fair manner same as in the past,” said Justice Lok.

Four near-boundary polling stations at two secondary schools in the vicinity of the Sheung Shui MTR Station will be set up to enable electors who reside in the Chinese mainland or need to travel to and from the mainland on the polling day to cast their DCGC votes.

DCGC electors will be allocated to ordinary polling stations in the vicinity of their registered addresses. The polling hours of ordinary polling stations will be from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm, said the commission chairman.

DCC electors will be assigned to the polling stations of the DCCs to which they belong. The polling hours will be from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, he added.

For the DCCs, after the close of polls, the polling staff will ensure that the locked and sealed ballot boxes will not be interfered with and the counting of votes will only commence until the close of polls for the DCGCs.

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This will take place in an effort to avoid any possible impact to the election results for the DCGCs due to the early announcement of election results for the DCCs.

(From left) Programme Coordinator (Clean Elections) of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Debbie Ly; Senior Assistant Solicitor General (Constitutional Development and Elections) of the Department of Justice, Jenny Law; Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission Justice David Lok; Chief Electoral Officer of the Registration and Electoral Office, Raymond Wang; and General Manager (Retail Business) of Hongkong Post, Hankie Cheung, are seen during a briefing for the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election candidates on Nov 13, 2023. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVT)

The Registration and Electoral Office will start to issue poll cards and election-related documents from Nov 15 onwards.

"Although the deadline for submission of election advertisements and relevant documents has been relaxed, I would like to remind candidates once again that if an election advertisement involves support for a candidate by any person or organization, they are still required to obtain the relevant consent of support before the publication of the election advertisement," said the EAC chairman.

This year's district council election is the first one in the wake of an array of reforms to its district-level governance in the aftermath of the social unrest of 2019. 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.

ALSO READ: Proposed district council reforms embody new core values for HK

Beginning on Oct 17, the nomination period for the election ended on Oct 30. The Returning Officers for the 18 District Committees constituencies and 44 District Council geographical constituencies received 399 nomination forms during this period. One nominee withdrew from the election, according to the District Council Eligibility Review Committee.