38.
Electoral Provisions Bill 1995
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Nicholas Ng, at the resumption of the second reading of the Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 1995 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the government's position on the reduction of qualifying residential period for election candidates from ten years preceding nomination to three years.
The rationale for imposing some form of residential requirement on election candidates is to ensure that candidates will have good knowledge of Hong Kong. The qualifying period should be sufficiently short to meet the Bill of Rights requirement, but sufficiently long to ensure that candidates have adequate first-hand and up-to-date knowledge of local conditions. We believe that a qualifying period of three years immediately preceding the date of nomination strikes the right balance.
We have great reservation on proposals to further reduce the qualifying period to less than three years, for example, to 180 days as proposed by Mr Andrew Wong. Such proposals would create prospects for people who have only resided in Hong Kong for an extremely short period of time to become candidates and, if elected, to sit on our representative institutions. Obviously, it is highly questionable whether a person who has resided in Hong Kong for only 180 days, or even a year, will have acquired a thorough understanding of the community's needs and aspirations, as well as the many and varied complex issues it faces. Thorough enough, that is, to be able to represent the interests of his constituents, and to make important decisions affecting the long-term interests of Hong Kong. And we must remember that Hong Kong is a dynamic, sophisticated metropolitan which is rapidly changing and evolving.
Some people would say that if the electors want someone who has been in Hong Kong for only a few months to represent them, then so be it. Mr President, I beg to differ. Electors will, of course, have the final say on who their representatives are; this is what open and fair elections are all about. But any responsible governments anywhere are duty bound to prescribe some minimum qualifications for candidature, so as to protect the integrity of the electoral process and the overall interests of the community. In our present case, a qualifying residential period of three years is precisely to serve this purpose.
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