CONFIDENTIAL
Double Voting Rights
BOR/ICCPR Considerations
There has been a suggestion that in order to avoid the situation in which some people have double voting rights in LegCo elections, legislation should permit people who are qualified to register in both geographical and functional constituencies to opt for registration in one or the other or, in the case of some functional
constituencies, permit registration in the functional
constituency only. This note considers whether legislation to implement these suggestions would be compatible with
article 25(b) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as applied to Hong Kong, as il would need to be to comply with Article VII (3) of the
Letters Patent.
2.
Article 25(b) of the ICCPR provides as follows:
"Every citizen shall have the right and the
opportunity, without any of the distinctions
mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable
restrictions:
(a)
3.
(b)
To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the
electors;".
I am not aware of any authoritative statement on the meaning and effect of article 25 (b). The UN Human Rights Committee has considered article 25 on relatively few occasions, and then only, for the most part, with
CONFIDENTIAL