The Chief Executive Election Debate, jointly organized by the eight electronic media organizations, will be held on March 15.

Election offices of incumbent Donald Tsang and the other contestant Alan Leong had agreed on the rules governing the debate and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) yesterday.

Staff of the candidates will not be allowed to clap hands during the debate. The citizens, who would attend the live session, have been asked to keep quiet, though they are allowed to clap.

The debate, which will be held at the TVB studio, will start at 8 pm and continue for one and a half hours.

Unlike the March 1 election forum which was arranged by Election Committee (EC) members, only representatives from the eight media organizations and some 200 randomly selected citizens can attend this time and pose questions to the candidates.

The debate has three sections livelihood, political and social issues with about 30 minutes allocated to each section.

During each section, media representatives can ask two questions, and the other questions will be asked by the audiences.

Speaking to the press after the two election offices had signed the memorandum of understanding, the Cable TV's Ronald Chiu, a member of the organizing committee, said the eight companies had set aside competition to organize the debate.

"The purpose of the debate is to give citizens the opportunity to participate and ask questions to the two candidates.

"Clapping hands may enhance the atmosphere but it may affect the debate which will be broadcast live. So only allowing the audiences to clap hands is a balance," he said.

Chiu further said since there was never before such a debate in Hong Kong and that eight media organizations are involved, they need to establish the rules in detail.

"But it is a pity that some people have during the process politicized the whole matter by criticizing the rules that are not yet finalized and even questioning the neutrality of the eight media organizations," he said without naming anybody.

Harold Yau, from Tsang's election office said after signing the MOU that everybody was happy and he was looking forward to a good debate.

Legislator Yeung Sum, who represents Leong, said the debate would be interesting because citizens would be allowed to take part and clap.