CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
59
Links with the Urban Council, Regional Council and the Heung Yee Kuk District boards in both Hong Kong and Kowloon and the New Territories were linked from the outset with the existing representative organisations, the Urban Council and the Heung Yee Kuk (a statutory body which represents the indigenous population of the New Territories and advises the government on New Territories matters). Urban district boards provide seats for elected and appointed Urban Councillors while New Territories district boards have seats reserved for rural committee chairmen.
From April 1985, each of the nine district boards in the New Territories will elect a representative to join the Provisional Regional Council and then, in 1986, the full Regional Council. This will provide for a strong link between the New Territories district boards and the Regional Council.
Electoral System for the Urban Council and District Boards
Elections to the Urban Council and district boards are on a constituency basis and through a very broad franchise. Practically everyone who is 21 years of age and who has been resident in Hong Kong for seven years, or who is a Hong Kong belonger, is eligible to apply for registration as an elector in the constituency in which he or she lives. Registration of new electors is conducted on a voluntary basis annually in August and September. The massive registration exercise for 1984 resulted in an addition of 521 951 new electors. At the end of the year, the electoral roll carried 1 421 391 names, representing 49 per cent of an estimated total potential electorate of 2.9 million. Of these electors, 995 321 are resident in the urban areas and are entitled to vote at Urban Council elections and at district board elections in the urban areas; the remaining 426 070 are resident in the New Territories and are entitled to vote at district board elections in the New Territories and at the new Regional Council elections in April 1986.
During the year, district board electoral boundaries were revised, taking into account the need to increase the size of the elected element in the district boards, and the geographical spread, growth, movement, and local characteristics of the population. For the district board elections to be held in March 1985, the territory will be divided into 19 districts and 145 constituencies - 10 districts with 83 constituencies in the urban areas and nine districts with 62 constituencies in the New Territories.
This represents an increase of one district and 23 constituencies. Most constituencies will have two elected members, and the total number of elected members will be increased from 56 to 92 for the New Territories district boards and from 76 to 145 for the urban area district boards.
For the Urban Council elections, there are 15 constituencies - each covers an area made up of a number of district board constituencies in the urban areas and returns one elected member to the council. The new Regional Council will have, in addition to other types of members, 12 elected, constituency-based members.
An elector may vote only in the constituency in which he has been registered. He may, however, stand for election to the Urban Council, the new Regional Council or a district board in any constituency, provided he has been resident in Hong Kong for 10 or more years and that his nomination is supported by 10 electors in that constituency. Voting is by simple plurality, in both single-member and double-member constituencies.
Elections are held on a three-year cycle. District board elections will be conducted simultaneously throughout the territory for the first time on March 7, 1985. The next Urban Council elections will be held in March 1986 together with those for the new Regional Council.