༡
Statement to be made 5} the Attorney General in the Legislative Council on March 1988 regarding arrangements for the dissoluzion of the Legislative Council etd
ATTORNEY GENERAL:
sir,
how. I would like to use this opportunity to inform Honourable Members of certain amendments to the Royal Instructions which relate to the work of this Council and which we propose to put to Ministers.
بكم
The first amendment concerns the date of dissolution of
the Legislative Council. Royal Instruction XXVIIIA presently
provides that the Legislative Council shall stand dissolved on the ninetieth day before the third anniversary of the first sitting of the Council following the latest election for all the elected Members of the Council*. This means in effect that, in this particular year, this Council would have to dissolve on le August and that we would then be without a Legislative Council for
three nearly 3 months.
بوو
three
Sir,
The provision has a number of drawbacks. First, it allows no flexibility in fixing a date for the Council to dissolve. Secondly
Secondly, when taken together with the provision in Royal Instruction XX1A that the period between the last sitting of the session and the first sitting of the next session shall not exceed months, it gives rise to the situation whereby, over time, the opening date for each new session tends to creep further forward. This resuits in further difficulties in keeping to our normal electoral cycle which envisages elections in September and a resumption of the Council in early to mid-October. Thirdly, and this is perhaps the most important point, this lack of flexibility on dates means that, when taken in conjunction with necessary pre- and post-election measures, there will be no Legislative Council for an undesirably long time. The proposal is to amend the Royal Instructions to provide that the Governor
..../2
wdenfall
the
Page 255Page 256