announced that membership of the 1985 Legislative Council would
be increased from 46 to 56, that official membership would be reduced from 16 to 10 and appointed membership from 30 to 22, and that 24 members should be elected indirectly 12 by an
Electoral College and 12 by functional constituencies. The White Paper also noted that the consultation exercise had
revealed "strong public support for the idea of direct elections but little support for such elections in the immediate future". The question of whether direct elections
should be introduced at the Legislative Council elections due in 1988 was explicitly left open for consideration in a further
review in 1987.
6. After 1984, there was increasing public debate on the
subject in Hong Kong. The 1985 Legislative Council was more active than its predecessors, and debated this and other
important issues openly, rather than in closed session.
7.
China's Basic Law for the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (SAR), which will enter into force on
the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997, was being
developed during this period by the Basic Law Drafting
Committee, appointed by the Chinese National People's Congress
in 1985. A Basic Law Consultative Committee was formed in
Hong Kong to reflect the views of Hong Kong people to the Drafting Committee. A first draft of the Basic Law came out in 1988, and the Basic Law was finally promulgated in April
1990. It spells out more fully the constitutional arrangements for post-1997 Hong Kong as promised in the Joint
Declaration. A "Decision of the National People's Congress",
annexed to the Basic Law, set out in some detail the method
for forming the first legislature of the Hong Kong SAR in July
1997, including its composition. The Decision also set out
the basis on which members of the Legislative Council elected
in 1995 could serve through 1997 to 1999 (the so-called
statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH
8