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Secretaries, i.e. the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary and the Attorney General should remain as Ex-officio Members of the Legislative Council. Therefore, it will be much higher. Secondly, as political parties will not arise in small constituencies, the society remains more stable. Of course, it is good if a mature political party arises as a result of democratic development. However, it can't be achieved overnight and it has to take a long time to evolve before a stable society is in sight. Up to this point, since Hong Kong does not have any mature and organized political parties, the method of big constituency is not very suitable. Smaller ones will be able to encourage those with potential to participate in running for election. Moreover, there will be a higher turn-out rate and candidates so returned will be more representative to people and they can be well monitored by their voters. As the big constituency election is expected to have low polling rate, it is a matter of doubt whether the candidates have the authority to represent the people or not.
White Paper on Representative Government: The Way Ahead, published in 1988 February decided at that time, the number of directly elected seats in Legislative Council was ten from different regional constituencies. Although the original decision to have ten directly elected seats be increased to eighteen. From this angle, we seem to have made some progress. The development of representative government should be made steadily and progressively. By doing so, the confidence of people will be boosted and the Government of Hong Kong will be able to govern Hong Kong effectively.
The political system in Hong Kong at this point in time will have to follow the Basic Law. Only in this way, we can have a smooth transition in 1997 and have a high degree of continuity to guarantee the public interest. Of course, the political system as stated in the Basic Law may not be ideal and perfect. At the appropriate time, changes and amendments should have to be made in order to reflect the development of Hong Kong society so that the Legislative Council can eventually be totally democratic and the Hong Kong Government will be fully accountable to the people of Hong Kong.
Sir, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. MAN SAI-CHEONG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, we understand that our aspirations are not met, yet 1991 is a very important year which the representative government will be moving a great step forward. Many people hope that it must succeed. As regards the election constituency and processes, I have the following points for the consideration of the Government.
Some people want to have big constituency, someone want to have small constituency and some favour a middle of the road type of constituency. From experience, in order to ensure that our elections are to succeed, we must consider whether the machinery is sound, whether we can shoulder the cost or not, how the candidates elected have accountability to the public. Based on the different opinions I have heard, I am of the opinion that if the constituency is big, the candidates must have enough financial and manpower resources before they will participate in the elections. However, if we have very small constituency, we cannot explain what is the difference between the Legislative Council election and the Urban Council election/District Board election. On balancing these points, I think the constituencies with two seats for each is a worthwhile trial because the risk can be reduced to a minimum.
As for constituency boundaries, I have the following comments. In deciding on constituency, it is most important to draw upon the experience of the past. The Urban Council elections have had big constituencies and smaller ones. Experience has shown the big constituency system was a failure. Very often it is monopolized by a number of people and the polling rate is usually low and it is doubtful whether the members elected are representative enough or not. In Hong Kong, up to the present moment, no well organized political parties have appeared. If we adopt the big constituency, it will be too risky. The 1984 Green Paper: Representative Government Chapter 3, says that the most important characteristic of our political system is the consultation with people and consider automatically registering the voters.
As regards the procedures of election, I think the laws of election must be fair and clear and should be more precise than the present law. If many candidates are to participate in the election, the system may have a better chance of success.
As regards the registration of voters, I hope that the government may consider lowering the age from twenty-one to eighteen to vote, it will be better because the government should accept that every adult has a legitimate right to vote. With this expanded figure the same time. The Government should declare next year to be a civic-minded year so as to let every sector of the community know the purposes of election and to step up and strengthen publicity at the network of constituencies, and solicit more people to stand for election. In particular, the professional, the people of Hong Kong today have higher sense of political awareness although the situation is different from before. In order to maintain political stability and prosperity, I think smaller constituency method is better. Firstly, it can gain full support from people living in districts and the polling rate will be much higher.
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