DRAFT SPEECH BY HON CHEUNG YAN LUNG, OBE, SBSt, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 10.2.88
-
Electoral Provisions Amendment) Bin 1988
MR. CHEUNG (in Cantonese):
Sir
le
le
The Electoral Provisions (Amendment) Bill 1988 seeks to, by removing a restriction contained in the existing law, enable a person to serve both as an elected member of the Urban Council and as an elected member of a pistrict poard in the
Urban Council area.
cap
The Government has made it clear that the Bill is a
self-contained measure, the purpose of which is to further improve the present link between the Urban Council and the urban District Boards. However, implicit in this Bill is the possibility of Urban Councillors losing their ex officio seats of urban District Boards should they choose not to run or do not get elected in the coming DB elections.
District districfections.
The Bill, when viewed strictly as a self-contained
measure, has my support. However, I have strong reservations on government's intention to discontinue Urban Councillors'
district boards ex officio membership of the urban QBS in March 1989 when the tenure of the present Urban Council expires. The following are
=
my reasons.
Firstly, the Government has not given any convincing reasons as to why such changes are necessary. The proposed changes beg the question is the present link unsound or ineffective? Certainly these are serious doubts and should be
clarified as soon as possible. The Government has indicated that the issue of linkage betwen the Urban Council and urban
le District Boards will be dealt with in the White Paper which is
published today. I just hope that the reasons for having to make these changes will be fully explained.
(I)
J
Page 90Page 91