CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
Mutual Aid Committees are building-based resident organisations, established to improve the security, cleanliness and general management of multi-storey buildings. More than 70 Area Committees and 4 000 Mutual Aid Committees provide an extensive network of communication between the government and the people at grassroots level.
Attached to the district offices are 19 public enquiry service centres, which provide a wide range of free services to members of the public, including answering general enquiries on government services; distributing government forms and information materials; administering oaths and declarations for private use; and referring cases under the Provisional District Board Members' meet-the-public scheme, the free Legal Advice Scheme and Rent Officer Scheme. The public enquiry service centres and central telephone enquiry centre received 2.78 million clients in 1997.
The Electoral System
An important task of the HKSAR Government is to ensure that the first HKSAR Legislative Council is put in place as soon as possible. Elections for the first HKSAR Legislative Council will be held on May 24, 1998. The government is committed to ensuring that the arrangements for the election are fair, open, honest and acceptable to the Hong Kong people.
The election will be conducted in accordance with the legal framework set out in the election law enacted in October 1997. The electoral process will be supervised by an independent Electoral Affairs Commission.
The Basic Law provides that the HKSAR Legislative Council shall be constituted by election. The method for its formation is to be specified in the light of the actual situation in the HKSAR and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The composition of the first three terms of the Legislative Council as set out in the Basic Law will be as follows:
Membership
(a) elected by geographical
constituencies through
First term (2 years)
Second term (4 years)
Third term
(4 years)
20
24
30
30
30
30
direct elections
(b) elected by functional
constituencies
(c) elected by an election committee
10
60
6
60
60
The Basic Law provides that changes to the formation of the Legislative Council after 2007 may be made by a two-thirds majority of all members of the Legislative Council and with the consent of the Chief Executive. Any such changes are to be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the record. The Basic Law also provides that the ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage.
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