XN000022-1995-06-07 — Page 41

- 31-

The Bill also provides that if it is the President who is absent for three consecutive months, this Council shall have the power to excuse his non-attendance.

Fourthly, under current legislation, the Governor shall declare, by notice published in the Gazette, that a vacancy exists in this Council within 21 days after the vacancy has come to his knowledge. Clauses 5, 6, 13 and 14 provide that when a casual vacancy arises in future, the declaration is to be made by either the President or the Clerk to this Council.

Lastly, under the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance, a Member of this Council is required to take the appropriate oath before the President or any other Member presiding as soon as he is appointed or elected. With the Governor stepping down from the Presidency, the question will arise as to who should administer oaths to Members at the first sitting in October 1995 before the election of the President. Clause 18 provides that oaths taken by the Members of this Council at the first sitting and before the election of the Legislative Council President shall be tendered by the Clerk to the Council, while oaths taken at any other sitting shall be tendered by the President or the Member acting in his place.

I now turn to the other set of proposals in the Bill. Under our electoral laws, a candidate, regardless of whether or not he is a permanent resident, must have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for the ten years immediately preceding his nomination. In addition, he must be a registered elector. The rationale for having some form of residential requirement is to ensure that candidates have sufficient local knowledge so that, if elected, they can effectively represent their constituents.

We have reviewed the residential qualifying period in the light of a recent Court case and public comments. Clauses 8 and 16 now propose to relax the requirement from ten-year immediately preceding the date of nomination to three-year immediately preceding the date of nomination. We believe that this new qualifying period is 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.