the number of appointed members in the District Boards and Municipal Councils.
37. The British side responded rapidly by developing these
points into a draft Memorandum of Understanding. The text is
reproduced at Annex 4. Given the urgency, this draft was
handed over in advance of the following round of talks due in
mid-November. The British side added one point of substance:
that the single-seat, single-vote method should also apply to
the Legislative Council geographical elections. They explained
that provided draft legislation on all these issues could be introduced into the Legislative Council quickly, a little more
time would be gained to resolve the remaining issues. But a
first stage understanding would have to include the voting
method for the Legislative Council. On all the available
evidence, it would not be acceptable to the Legislative Council
or the community to include a proposal for the voting method for the District Boards and the Municipal Councils but exclude a similar proposal for Legislative Council elections, particularly since other aspects of the proposed first stage understanding, such as the voting age and the lifting of the
restriction on National People's Congress and Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference members, were to apply to all
three tiers of government, including the Legislative Council.
The British side further explained that a first stage
understanding would also need to allow them to introduce draft legislation for the abolition of appointed seats in the 1994-5
elections. The Chinese side did not contest this latter point
in initial discussion of the draft Memorandum of Understanding.
38. Following a Ministerial meeting, attended by the Governor, on 10 November, the Prime Minister sent
Premier Li Peng a message. He welcomed the progress which had been made towards an understanding on the most immediate
issues, and indicated that for practical reasons it would be
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ཝཱ ཨཙ _---