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Reply:
Mr President,
There are 691 villages in the New Territories. As I explained to this Council in my written reply to Hon Cheung Man-kwong's question at the sitting on 23 November 1994, since the Heung Yee Kuk promulgated its one-person-one-vote rule on village representative elections, we have been actively promoting compliance of the new rule by the 555 villages under 25 Rural Committees in the New Territories which had yet to hold elections. Since at that time the Sha Tin and Tai Po Rural Committees were already organising their elections, this figure does not include the 136 villages under these two Rural Committees.
(a)
On the first question: Of the 555 villages concerned, 396 villages have by the end of March this year held election of their village representatives in accordance with the Heung Yee Kuk's model rules. The position has further improved during the last month. During the month of April, an addition of 22 villages have completed their village representative elections on the new rules, thus bringing the total number to 418 villages.
Of the remaining 137 villages, 108 villages will be holding their new village representative elections in compliance with the Heung Yee Kuk's model rules.
In summary, therefore, 526 out of the 555 villages concerned have by now held or will hold village representative elections under the "one- person-one-vote" rule. The Heung Yee Kuk can rightly regarded this as a significant achievement in less than one year.