CONFIDENTIAL
XCC(71)20
(p)
(q)
- 10.
at least 300, 000 persons qualified to vote, of whom only some 37, 000 registered and some 12, 000 voted. But also there are very considerable political objections to any general extension of the franchise (which already includes all persons named on the ratepayers' list, as well as persons with a wide range of educational and professional qualifications), and no major change is proposed at present. Nor is it proposed to introduce automatic registration of voters, which would be not only undesirable in principle but an extraordinarily difficult and time- consuming administrative process which would be warranted only if it was intended to introduce compulsory voting on a wide franchise. However, it would be desirable in future to restrict the vote to persons living in the urban areas, if the Urban Council's authority is not extended to the New Territories. Another desirable but minor change would be to extend the voting disqualification period, in case of imprisonment, beyond the expiry of the prison sentence. The door should be kept open for the addition of suitable categories of persons to the list of authorised voters.
Candidates for election; it is proposed that any resident, whether living in the urban areas or in the New Territories, should be free to stand for election; at present only one Urban Councillor, an appointed member, lives in the New Territories. This gives the voters the widest possible choice, and recognises that many persons with substantial urban interests maintain homes in the New Territories. Moreover, it would not be reasonable to confine candidates for election to urban residents without applying the same restriction to appointed members, and no advantage is seen in limiting in this way the choice of persons for appointment to the Council.
The Director of Urban Services: for the present the Director of Urban Services should remain a member ? of Legislative Council, in a personal capacity.
Finance
9
(a)
It is this area which offers the most significant scope for giving more authority and discretion to the Urban Council. Financial discretion could be given by appropriating a lump sum each year from general revenue for the Urban Council's recurrent expenditure (including the servicing of capital borrowings), but this would result in constant arguments between the Urban Council and Government about the amount of each year's appropriation. It could be argued that a functional board (as opposed to a bona fide local
CONFIDENTIAL