Forty-two candidates have been confirmed as qualified to run for the Hong Kong Administrative Region's deputies to the nation's top legislature. The election, which will pick 36 new deputies, is scheduled to take place on Dec 15.

The candidates were approved at the second presidium meeting of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the Hong Kong SAR to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) on Thursday.

During the meeting, which was held by a 19-member presidium with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu as the chairperson, reviewed the nomination forms submitted by 42 applicants within the nomination period from Nov 23 to Nov 30.

All the applicants met the candidacy requirements, which included getting nominations from over 15 electoral conference members. If successfully elected as the HKSAR's NPC deputies, they will serve a term of five years.

On Nov 21, the Hong Kong electoral conference held its first plenary session and elected a 19-member presidium chaired by Lee. Other members include Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

On the same day, the presidium set the dates for the nomination period and for voting in the upcoming NPC deputy election.