G.F. 316
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4
(£)
(g)
one option might be to promote the Chief Executive in 1997
1997 to take up the powers relinquished by the outgoing British Governor;
in the Chinese view the functions of the Chief Executive were
were presently vested in the Governor. If we now separated out some of the Governor's powers
powers and vested these in a separate Chief Executive, the Chinese might see this as a downgrading of the Chief Executive and therefore a violation of the Joint Declaration. However no changes to the Governor's powers would be made without first consulting the Chinese.
Composition of Legislature and the 1987 Review
4.
Members agreed that we could not put the clock back, nor could we mark time. They reaffirmed that the 1987 Review was the last chance to exercise decisive influence. In that review we should ain for constructive modifications of the present arrangements.
5.
should be increased.
Official Membership:
Direct Elections:
Members agreed that this
6.
A majority of Members believed that there would have to be a directly elected element offered in the 1987 Review, with the remaining Members favouring indirect elections. The possibility of a restricted franchise was also discussed, but most Members thought this impracticable. On the assumption of an overall number of about 60 LegCo Members including 12 Officials, the proponents of direct elections favoured between 6 and 10 directly elected Members. dangers of tampering with the existing franchise for DB, UC and RC elections, which
which was widely accepted, were noted.
7.
The arguments against direct elections were:
(a) the one
man
The
one vote system, while successful in some western countries had been a recipe for disaster elsewhere. In Hong Kong the recent direct elections to the Regional Council and the Urban Council had produced an excess of social workers
and school teachers;
(b) we already had a form of direct elections
in the functional constituencies.
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