(7)
11
Indirect Elections based on Geographical and
Functional Constituencies
18.
Herein lies the logic
logic in the plans in the
White Paper to develop the present system whereby all
unofficial members of the Legislative Council are
selected and appointed by the Governor from these
constituencies into a system which will provide for a
substantial number of unofficial members to be elected
from within these constituencies to the Legislative
Council.
19.
There are, of course, other ways of assembling
a Legislative Council; and one way which has been
strongly advocated by a number of groups is a directly
elected system. There can be no objection to direct
elections as such, much less to
a directly elected
But, as explained in
element later on,
say, in 1988.
the Green Paper and this was not widely disputed, direct
elections would run the risk of a
jerky shift to
introducing an element of
adversarial politics,
instability at a crucial time. Hong Kong has had no
experience of indirect, let alone direct, elections to
the Legislative Council and direct elections at regional
and district level are a relatively new feature of our
political life. The Government has, therefore, taken
the view that, given the short time available and the
fundamental importance of avoiding mistakes,
the