CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
The qualifications for candidature in geographical constituency elections are the same as in the District Board and municipal council elections. In functional constituency elections, a candidate must have in addition a substantial connection with the relevant functional constituency. Each nomination requires 10 subscribers, except for the municipal council functional constituencies which require only five subscribers due to the small electorate size of the constituencies. Except for one electoral division (Labour) which has two seats, all electoral divisions are single-seat.
Election is by simple majority for geographical constituencies; and by a preferential elimination voting system for all functional constituencies. In constituencies where there are two seats, each elector can cast two votes.
Advisory Committees
The network of government boards and committees is a distinctive feature of the system of government which seeks to obtain, through consultation with interested groups in the community, the best possible advice on which to base decisions. Thus advisory bodies of one kind or another are found in nearly all government departments and quasi-government bodies. In general, advisory bodies may be divided into five categories: statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Endangered Species Advisory Board); statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the Board of Education); non-statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Labour Advisory Board), non-statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the Transport Advisory Committee), and committees which are executive in nature (such as the Hong Kong Examinations Authority).
Government officials and members of the public are represented on these committees. About 5 750 members of the public are appointed to serve on a total of 469 boards and committees, and some serve on more than one of these advisory bodies. These members are appointed in view of their specialist knowledge or expertise, or their record or interest in contributing to community service. Increasing importance has been attached to the contribution they make to the formulation and execution of government policies and, in order to utilise their potential to the full, the composition and effectiveness of these bodies are regularly monitored. Where appropriate, the government broadens the cross-section of representation and encourages an inflow of new ideas through a reasonable turnover of membership.
The Administration
Role of the Chief Secretary
The Chief Secretary is principally responsible to the Governor for the formulation of government policies and their implementation. He is the head of the Public Service. The Chief Secretary, together with the Financial Secretary and the Attorney General, are the Governor's principal advisers.
The Chief Secretary exercises direction primarily as head of the Government Secretariat, the central organisation comprising the secretaries of the policy branches and resource branches and their staff. He deputises for the Governor during his absence and is the Senior Official Member of the Executive and Legislative Councils and Chairman of the Finance Committee.
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