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A five-week voter registration campaign under the nomination exercise for arts representatives for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) started today (June 11) and will close on July 19.
A spokesman for the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) said, "The current term of office of the HKADC members will expire on December 31, 2010. The HAB is now conducting an exercise to nominate representatives of 10 arts interests for the next term of the HKADC commencing January 1, 2011. The first phase of the nomination exercise - registration of members of the nominating bodies - closed on May 10. We call upon arts organisations that are members of the nominating bodies to help their eligible members register as voters so that they may take part in the polling at a later stage to return their arts representatives for the HKADC."
During the first phase of the nomination exercise this year, 206 individual arts workers and 190 arts organisations were newly registered as members of the nominating bodies, bringing the total number to 1,570, comprising 837 individual arts workers and 733 arts organisations. This represents an increase of about 33% over the figure of 1,183 for the last nomination exercise in 2007. A full list of the members of the nominating bodies was published in the gazette today.
The individual arts workers named in the gazette will automatically become voters and further registration is not required. The arts organisations specified in the gazette must submit voter registration forms on behalf of their members by July 19 to enable the latter to participate in the subsequent phases of the nomination exercise including nomination of candidates, electioneering and voting. Arts organisations registered as nominating bodies in 2007 or before must also submit voter registration forms for their members afresh this year.
PR Concepts Asia Limited has been commissioned by the HAB to be the nomination agent for this nomination exercise. Specified arts organisations will receive letters from the nomination agent containing guidelines and application forms for voter registration and candidate nomination, while the individual arts workers will receive letters containing guidelines and application forms for candidate nomination. Those who do not receive these letters by June 18 may contact the nomination agent at 2232 3981 or by email to virgini@prconcept.com. They can also download the relevant guidelines and forms from the website of the nomination exercise: www.voteforhkadc2010.hk.
The HKADC is a statutory body set up to promote the development of arts in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Ordinance, the Chief Executive may appoint up to 10 persons nominated by specified arts interests. The 10 arts interests include arts administration, arts criticism, arts education, Chinese opera (xiqu), dance, drama, film arts, literary arts, music and visual arts.
This year's nomination exercise is conducted in four phases as follows:
Phase 1: Registration of eligible organisations / individual arts workers as members of the nominating bodies of the respective arts interests (March 30 to May 10, 2010)
Phase 2: Voter registration (June 11 to July 19, 2010)
Phase 3: Candidate nomination (early August to mid-August 2010)
Phase 4: Electioneering and polling (late August to mid-September 2010)
Ends/Friday, June 11, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:42
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