members of the District Boards, Municipal Councils and the Heung

Yee Kuk. They made clear that for the reasons noted above, it

would not be appropriate for members of the 1991 Legislative

Council, or Hong Kong representatives of the NPC and CPPCC to

serve on the Election Committee simply by virtue of their

membership of these bodies. During Round 14, in another effort

to narrow the gap, the British side confirmed that NPC and CPPCC

representatives would be free to stand for election to the Election Committee; and accepted the Chinese proposal that the

size of the 1995 Election Committee should be about 600, as part

of an overall package deal.

60. On voting method, the British side proposed that the

Functional Constituencies would elect the first three sectors by

the block-vote method, ie each Functional Constituency elector

would have as many votes as the number of members to be returned

by that Functional Constituency. Elections within the Election

Committee would use the single transferable vote method. Any

registered voter who was eligible to serve as a LegCo member

would be eligible for election by the Election Committee

provided he or she secured at least five nominations by Election

Committee members.

61. In the view of Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong

Government, this revised proposal, although less simple than

the Governor's original proposal, would meet the essential requirements by ensuring that the Election Committee would be

elected by people who had been elected fairly and openly in Hong Kong, through either the functional constituencies or the

District Boards, and that the elections inside the Election

Committee would take place in an open and fair manner.

Functional Constituencies

62.

The Hong Kong Government's 1988 White Paper defined

functional constituencies as representing economic and

statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH

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