42 Hong Kong residents qualify as candidates for deputies to national legislature

HONG KONG, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 42 residents in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) were confirmed as qualified candidates for deputies to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, according to a presidium meeting of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the HKSAR to the 14th NPC on Thursday.

The presidium held its second meeting earlier in the day, confirming that all the 42 applicants who had submitted candidate registration forms during the nomination period on Nov. 23-30 met the qualifications of being Hong Kong residents with Chinese citizenship aged 18 or above, who had obtained at least 15 nominations from electoral conference members.

Some of the candidates are deputies to the 13th NPC, and some are members of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The voting will take place on Dec. 15 at the second plenary session of the electoral conference. According to the method for the HKSAR to elect deputies to the 14th NPC, a total of 36 deputies are to be elected in the HKSAR.

John Lee, chief executive of the HKSAR and standing chairman of the presidium, presided over Thursday's meeting.