The National People's Congress!
ressional and to
(NPC); Chinese People's Political
representatives of t Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
deputies to the
NPC and CPPCC
69. The voting method proposed by the Chinese side is self-evidently restrictive and cumbersome.
70. Following the Foreign Secretary's meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister in July 1993, the British side introduced in Round 8 of the talks a revised proposal on the Election Committee. In a major move towards the Chinese position, this accepted that the Election Committee should be composed of four sectors on the lines set out in Annex 1 of the Basic Law. The first three sectors would be elected by groups of functional constituencies. Electors in each functional constituency would then elect a specified number of members to the Election Committee, as well as a functional constituency representative to the Legislative Council. On the fourth sector, the British side proposed that it should be returned by members of the District Boards, the 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 deputies to Chinese Peoples' Congressed 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 Hong Kong residents who were member of Chinese People's Congresses 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.
71. 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 on the Legislative Council would be eligible for election by the Election Committee, provided he or she secured at least five nominations by Election Committee members.
72. 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
73. The Hong Kong Government's 1988 White Paper defined functional constituencies as representing sectors of substantial size and importance in Hong Kong. Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong Government consider that if the functional constituency system is to meet the requirements of fairness and openness, there are two lessons to be learnt from recent experience. First, corporate voting can lead to an individual having effective control over several votes in functional constituencies. Second, the very small electorates in some of the existing constituencies lead to a risk of corruption, of which there has been a recent example in Hong Kong. It is therefore necessary to provide for constituencies of a substantial size.
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