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CHAPTER III
DIRECT ELECTIONS TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
PUBLIC RESPONSE TO THE GREEN PAPER
It
Of all the questions raised in the Green Paper, the subject of
direct elections to the Legislative Council produced by far the greatest public response. The Survey Office received 124,228
submissions on the matter from individuals and groups of
individuals, representing the views of 137,217 people in all.
also received 605 submissions from associations and other bodies.
164 public opinion surveys of various sorts addressed the issue, and
21 signature campaigns collected over 200,000 signatures. The
Legislative Council debated the subject and the Municipal Councils
and all District Boards discussed it.
The bulk of the views expressed was in favour of introducing
directly elected members into the Legislative Council. Even allowing for the fact that many people did not express any views it
is plain that there is a strong trend in public opinion in favour of developing the present system to include a directly elected element at the central level of government, and doing so well before 1997.
On the question of whether a directly elected element should
be introduced in 1988, however, opinion was sharply divided. Those
who favoured introduction in 1988 argued that direct elections were
important for the development of more open, accountable and representative government and should be introduced as early as possible. Those against argued that introduction in 1988 was too
soon because it could endanger stability and continuity: it would
involve a second major reorganisation in three years and the system
of elections to be used after 1997 had not yet been established in
the Basic Law.
Most submissions to the Survey Office from individuals, groups and associations were against the introduction of direct elections in 1988. The two public opinion surveys commissioned by the Survey
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