CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
number of district board constituencies in the Regional Council area. There are altogether 15 elected Urban Councillors and 12 elected Regional Councillors.
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 Regional Council or a district board in any constituency, provided he has been resident in Hong Kong for the preceding 10 or more years and his nomination is supported by 10 electors in that constituency. Election is by simple majority.
At the District Board elections held on March 3, 1991, 467 candidates stood for election to the 274 seats in the 210 constituencies. Eighty one were elected unopposed. Of the 1 305 714 electors in the contested constituencies, 423 923 cast their votes, giving a turnout of 32.5 per cent.
At the Urban Council elections held on May 5, 1991, 37 candidates stood for election to the 15 constituencies. One was elected unopposed. Of the 1028 541 electors in the contested constituencies, 215 869 cast their votes, giving a turnout of 21 per cent. The Regional Council elections were held concurrently with the Urban Council elections. A total of 24 candidates were nominated in the 12 constituencies. One was elected unopposed. Of the 675 782 electors in the contested constituencies, 177 895 cast their votes, giving a turnout of 26.3 per cent.
Electoral System for the Legislative Council
There were major changes in the electoral system for the Legislative Council in 1991. The 10 district board constituencies in the electoral college were abolished and replaced by a new system for direct elections to return 18 members from nine double-seat geographical constituencies. The number of functional constituency seats was increased from 14 to 21, including one seat for each of the two municipal councils which were formerly special constituencies in the electoral college. The other new functional constituencies cover the financial services, tourism, real estate and construction, architectural and associated professions and rural sectors.
The franchise for Legislative Council elections is as follows: for geographical con- stituencies, an elector must be an individual having the same qualifications and sharing the same electoral roll as for the direct elections to the District Boards and the municipal councils; for functional constituencies, an elector could be either a corporate or an individual of the major economic, social and professional sectors. An individual elector is also required to be registered as an elector for the direct elections. A corporate elector must appoint an authorised representative to vote on its behalf. No individual elector or authorised representative may be registered in more than one functional constituency. However, if eligible, an individual may be registered as an elector in one functional constituency and serve as an authorised representative for a corporate elector in another functional constituency.
For 1991, the electoral roll for functional constituencies carried 69 825 entries, compared to the registered electorate of 61 052 in 1990.
The qualifications for candidature are simple: a candidate for a geographical con- stituency should have the same qualifications as the candidate for the District Board and municipal council elections, that is, being a registered elector under the Electoral Provisions Ordinance and having been resident in Hong Kong for 10 or more years preceding nomination. For a functional constituency, a candidate must have in addition a
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