functional constituencies, despite the evidence that, tiny franchises can lead to corruption and vote-rigging.
hey proposed that, learning nothing from experience, the nine new functional constituencies should be formed in the same way.
They proposed a byzantine system open to manipulation for the Election Committee to return 10 members of the Legislative
Council. They proposed a voting method for the geographical constituencies tilted to ensure that the less popular parties
won seats.
сп
We went as far as we could to bridge the gap. We came close to doing so in the case of the most urgent issues. The only point
which prevented an interim agreement on these was the Chinese
sides refusal to accept our proposed voting method for the Legislative Council geographical elections, even though they had accepted this method for the District Board and Municipal Council elections, and it was uncontroversial in Hong Kong.
Without this element, an interim agreement would not cover all
the issues on which legislation is most urgent, and would not
therefore have won more time to discuss the remaining issues.
We now need to get on with legislation on the urgent issues to
enable the elections to be held on time. The Hong Kong
Government's Bill is limited to those issues.
them agreement had been reached in the talks.
talks can continue on the remainder. Meanwhile the Governor
will be consulting members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council on the content of draft legislation on these remaining issues.
It will be for them to pass legislation in the best interests of Hong Kong. This is a heavy responsibility. But we and the
Governor have consistently said that we cannot go further, nor
can we go less far, than the people of Hong Kong wish us to go.
On all but one of
We hope that
We are furly committed to cooperation with China on Hong Kong and to fulfilling our obligations under the Joint Declaration.
It is common sense that this is the best way to promote the
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