Who can afford election expenses of HK$6 million, the price of some flats, to run for a Legco seat?
That was the question many were asking when lawmakers examined details of the election plan for the chief executive and Legislative Council in 2012 unveiled by the constitutional affairs chief, Stephen Lam Sui-lung, on Saturday.
Critics said putting the figure so high for candidates running for the five district council constituency seats would favour the rich and powerful parties.
Even though a slate of candidates - a maximum of five - can claim up to half of their campaign expenditure, if they secure at least 5 per cent of valid votes, such a team would still have to fork out HK$3 million.
But Lam said that as the candidates had to appeal to 3.2 million voters, given that a single constituency has been adopted for these five seats, the cap was reasonable.
It will create five 'super-lawmakers' - functional constituency legislators who are elected by far more people than those in the geographical constituencies. As everyone will be able to vote, a candidate has to secure about 300,000 votes to get a seat. Other lawmakers in geographical constituencies can land a seat with a few tens of thousands of votes.
Lam said it would be dangerous to set too low a limit as candidates could find themselves infringing the law.
