SECRET 
in
5
proposed
connection
that
all
with the
This is
different
"permanent
legislation,
have resided
residents
registered voters with
substantial
relevant FCs can become EC members,
from the present meaning of the
of Hong Kong : under existing other than "permanent residents", persons who
in Hong Kong for seven years or more are
eligible to register as voters. Possible solutions to this problem are either we abandon this particular proposal for
committees to model on the 95' EC, or we amend proposal for eligibility for membership of the 95' EC one based on "permanent residents of Hong Kong". Further study is necessary before a recommendation can be
the
our
to
made.
future
Voters Returning Members to the Committee
12.
Proposal : as with the 95' EC, members of the
future committees should be returned by
individual (as
opposed to corporate) voters by the Block Vote System.
13.
In theory, this should not cause any difficulties with the BL. It might be argued that in the case of the post-97 ECS, Annex I para 3 clearly envisages the voters to be "organisations" and "corporate bodies", not individuals (see Annex A, II (a) (iv) and (v)). In response we can point out that while the BL provisions do refer to "organisations" which "return Election Committee members" and "corporate bodies" which "on their own, elect members
to the Election Committee", they do not actually require
such
or "organisations"
"bodies" themselves to be the
voters.
Nor do they preclude arrangements for the voting to be done by individual members of the "organisations" or "bodies". It can thus be argued that the BL provisions are met by our proposal for FCS based on organisations.
G.F. 316
SECRET 高度機密