Candidates for the five new seats in the district councils functional constituency seats in the Legislative Council in 2012 will each have to obtain nominations from at least 15 district councillors, the government proposes.
A person familiar with government proposals to be unveiled this week said eligibility for such seats would be restricted to serving district councillors.
Although the number of directly elected Legco seats will increase from 30 to 35 in 2012, the number of geographical constituencies will remain at five.
The Democratic Party, whose proposal to allow the public to vote on the five new seats in the district councils functional constituency was endorsed by Beijing in June, said the nomination requirement was too stringent. The party had proposed that each candidate would need to secure the nominations of 10 elected district councillors.
Albert Ho Chun-yan, party chairman, said there was no point in requiring nominations from 15 district councillors for the five new seats. 'For existing functional constituencies, a candidate is required to obtain nominations from only 10 voters in the relevant sector,' he said.
However, lawmaker Ip Kwok-him, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said his party thought a nomination threshold requiring the backing of between 10 and 20 district councillors was acceptable.
