No extra money

THE council rejected the Government's proposal for an extra $20,000 expense limit for candidates to replace damaged election materials for the coming Municipal Council elections.

They instead accepted a Democratic Party amendment which keeps the election expense limit to $100,000.

In moving the amendment, Dr Yeung Sum of the Democratic Party said there was no need to set up an extra expense account because candidates would have spare money for emergency spending such as replacing damaged publicity materials.

'It will also create a lot of administrative problems for the Government to monitor this extra account,' said Dr Yeung.

He said the $100,000 expense limit was a more than 40 per cent increase on the 1991 amount of $70,000 and a higher limit would drive out less well-off candidates.