HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 1 March 1990
香港立法局 —————— 一九九0年三月一日
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Ordinance merely states that an elected Legislative Council Member will be disqualified from the legislature if "he holds any public office or any office of emolument in the gift or disposal of a public body" without giving a clear definition of "public office". This uncertainty has already given rise to a series of litigation. Section 19(1)(a) of the Electoral Provisions Ordinance, which regulates the polls of the two municipal councils and the 19 district boards, contains a similar difficulty.
Another aspect of the electoral law which also warrants attention is the vague requirement that a candidate running for a functional constituency seat or the holder of such office has to have a "substantial connection" with his constituency. The law stipulates that a candidate or an elected member shall be disqualified if such connection ceases to exist. That the term "substantial connection" is justiciable cannot be denied and for that reason alone it is quite unsatisfactory. This is especially so in respect of non-professional functional constituency representatives because it is entirely up to the court to interpret the law and determine what substantial connection means.
One might argue that a requirement is essential to ensuring a direct and reasonable link between a functional constituency and its representative and that removing it from the law could give rise to the scenario of having lawyers represented by a doctor and doctors by a lawyer. If that be the case, so be it. At least there would be a lawyer and a doctor on this Council. If there was to be a situation in which functional constituencies were not represented by the people from within their group, perhaps we should call it a day and have direct elections to the entire legislature. Above all, Sir, it is time for us to trust our
voters.
Sir, I believe the afore-mentioned legal problems deserve close scrutiny by both the Attorney General and the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs and I earnestly hope that solutions can be found and implemented well before next year's elections. It is not that I do not have faith in the majesty of the ballot box. What may be open to doubt is the magnanimity of losers. There have been precedents as a result of these loopholes and it is possible, and perhaps foreseeable, that the courts may be inundated by cases of this sort from next year on as we are set to have more and more elections.
Sir, since the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984, a large part of communication between Hong Kong and Beijing has focused mainly on the Basic Law drafting exercise which, however, was completed earlier last month. In the coming seven years we expect an increasingly closer Sino-Hong Kong relationship and a continuous dialogue over various aspects of life in Hong Kong and a wide range of matters of common interests. The existence of effective