A total of 307 nomination forms —  305 from individual candidates and two from designated bodies — for the Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections in Hong Kong were received by Returning Officers on Wednesday, the first day of the nomination period.

The figure was up by about 20 percent compared with the first day nominations for the last Election Committee (EC) poll in 2021.

The nomination period, which runs until Oct 20, has seen heated participation, with some subsectors already receiving more applications than available seats, meaning that a poll will have to be held. Among them is the Heung Yee Kuk subsector, which was uncontested in the last election. The subsector received 28 applications for 27 seats.

The polls will be held on Nov 22.

On the first nomination day, the labor sector received the highest number of candidate nominations, at 60, followed by the agriculture and fisheries sector with 46.

In the tourism subsector, 17 candidates — including Tommy Tam Kwong-shun, chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong; Ng Hi-on, the council’s deputy chairman; and Alex Lee Chun-ting, director of Marketing Strategy and Development – Hospitality of Miramar Travel — have registered for the 17 available seats.

The new 1,500-member Election Committee — made up of 982 elected seats, 156 nominated seats, and 362 ex-officio members including Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and lawmakers — will select Hong Kong’s next chief executive next March.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has launched a multi-faceted education and publicity campaign under the theme “Abide by the Rules, Support Clean Elections” and is working closely with relevant SAR government departments and organizations to ensure that the elections are conducted in a fair, open and honest manner, and are free from corrupt and illegal conduct.

Following the introduction of the improved electoral system in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the EC was reconstituted by increasing the number of sectors from four to five and the number of members from 1,200 to 1,500 with the addition of new subsectors, such as Small and Medium Enterprises, Grassroots Associations and Associations of Chinese Fellow Townsmen.

Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com