CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
In his policy address to the Legislative Council in October 1993, the Governor reported that, conditional on an overall agreement including acceptable arrangements for the 'through train', the British side had offered revised proposals on the arrangements for functional constituencies and the Election Committee. Firstly, the British side had devised a new proposal for the nine new functional constituencies based on organisations and with a total eligible electorate of about one-third of that in the original proposal. Secondly, the British side had put forward proposals for a four-sector Election Committee along the lines set out in the Basic Law for the post-1997 Election Committee, while maintaining the view that all members of the Election Committee should themselves be elected. These alternative proposals were designed to meet known Chinese concerns, while upholding the British side's firm objective of ensuring open and fair elections in Hong Kong.
Despite the 17 rounds of talks held since April, both sides were unable to reach agreement by December on the more straightforward and immediate issues relating to the elections. These immediate issues required legislation by February 1994 if orderly arrangements are to be in place for the 1994 and 1995 elections. To provide slightly more time for the talks to continue on the more difficult issues, draft legislation on the more immediate issues was introduced into the Legislative Council on December 15.
The Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Bill 1993 covered the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 for all three tiers of elections; the adoption of the single-seat, single-vote voting method for the Legislative Council, municipal council and the district board geographical constituency elections; the abolition of appointed district board and municipal council membership; and an increase in the number of elected municipal council seats (from 15 to 32 for the Urban Council and from 12 to 27 for the Regional Council).
As a mark of the British side's sincere wish to continue co-operation with the Chinese, the Bill also contained draft provisions to permit, as proposed by the Chinese side during the talks, Hong Kong residents who were members of Chinese People's Congresses at various levels to serve in the Legislative Council, the municipal councils and the district boards.
General
Hong Kong is administered by the Hong Kong Government, which is headed by the Governor. Under the terms of the Joint Declaration, which entered into force on May 27, 1985, Hong Kong will become, with effect from July 1, 1997, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
The Governor is the representative of the Queen in Hong Kong. He has the ultimate direction of the administration of Hong Kong. An Executive Council offers advice to the Governor on important matters of policy.
At the central level of the three-tier system of representative government, the Legislative Council enacts laws, debates policy issues and controls public expenditure. At the regional level, the two municipal councils the Urban Council and the Regional Council provide public health, cultural and recreational services in their respective regions. At the district level, 19 district boards offer advice on the implementation of policies in their districts and provide an effective forum for public consultation.
There are elections on the basis of universal franchise at all the three tiers of repre- sentative government: two-thirds of district board members, 38 per cent of Urban
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