WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1985
1
1
SPEECH BY THE CHIEF SECRETARY
ON
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL (ELECTORAL PROVISIONS) BILL 1985
*****
sir,
I @Ove that the Legislative Council (Electoral Provisions) Bill 1985 be read a second time.
The purpose of this Bill La to provide for the election of 24 members to the Legislative Council in September as envisaged in the White Paper on the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong which was laid on the table on 21 November last year. The Bill seeks to provide for the establishment of twelve electoral college
college constituencies and nine functional constituencies which will return, between them, a total of 24 members
members to the Legislative Council. The Bill also prescribes the relevant electoral procedures, which are based, as far as possible, on those already well tried procedures, recently tested again with success, contained in existing legislation applicable to the Urban Council and District Board elections.
I think it would be helpful to remind Members, at this stage, of the objectives of the plans for more representative government set out in the White Paper. As I said in my speech to this Council on 9 January this year, these objectives can be stated quite simply: the first objective is that the future system of representative government in Hong Kong should be
firmly in the community and
rooted
thereby be directly
/accountable to