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the distribution of seats on the Committee. The channels of selection discussed by the group of six included "democratic consultation", election, nomination and invitation. Subsequently, the draft Constitution provides that: "Members of the Consultative Committee will be picked by the Hong Kong members of the Drafting Committee by nomination or invitation through extensive democratic consultation with the public,
or by invitation through consultation."
The draft Constitution, however, does not specify the eligibility for and procedure of nomination and invitation. Furthermore, in their meeting, the Hong Kong members of the Drafting Committee suggested that "election" by community groups be replaced by "nomination".
It was
explained that those "nominated" can be rejected while those "elected" must be accepted. It can thus be seen that the core policy of the Hong Kong members of the Drafting Committee is to attach importance to reserving the initiative as they would rather select members to the Consultative Committee than accept members elected to the Committee.
The question of how members of the Consultative Committee ar to be selected is complicated in itself because given the limited size of its membership, distribution of seats on the Committee must be carefully considered. In actual practice, there ought to be a fixed ratio between members elected or nominated by the public and those
invited by the Hong Kong members of the Drafting Committee. Also, seats allocated to different sectors or groups (such as the industrial and commercial sectors, various non-government bodies and professional groups) should be in appropriate proportion. In principle, many
people hope that the Consultative Committee will be an organization capable of reflecting all sorts of opinions and offering opinions of high quality, rather than a body sharing out political benefits. Yet, the distribution of seats on the Consultative Committee is in itself a device for seeking a compromise among bodies or strata representing diverse interests. Members of the upper class make up the majority of the Hong Kong members of the Drafting Committee. During the visit to New China News Agency in mid-July, representatives of the community groups asked whether more members of the lower class would be selected