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PRIVACY MARKING
DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
forum for public consultation and participation in
administration at the district level. In 1986 the
Regional Council was established as the statutory
authority with responsibility for the area outside the
jurisdiction of the Urban Council. Elections to the
Urban Council (since 1981), Regional Council and District
Boards now take place on a geographical constituency
basis, with a broad franchise embracing all residents who
are 21 years of age or over and have lived in Hong Kong
for 7 years or more.
In Confidence
32.
The development of a more representative form of
government at the central level also began in the 1970s,
with the expansion of the Legislative Council to include
more members who are not officials. Such members formed
a majority of the Council for the first time in 1976, and
by 1984 they constituted 62.5% of the membership (ie 29
out of the then total of 47 members). But there were no
elected members of the Legislative Council when the
Joint Declaration was signed: all were appointed.
Following public consultation on the basis of a Green
Paper published in July 1984, the Hong Kong Government
announced in their White Paper of November 1984 that an
indirectly elected element would be introduced into the
Legislative Council as from October 1985. 12 members of
the enlarged Council of 56 were duly elected from
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functional' constituencies based on major professional
and occupational groups; 12 others were elected on a
geographical basis by an electoral college comprising all
members of the Urban and Regional Councils and District