XN000022-1995-10-12 — Page 26

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Question: Good morning, my question is about the LegCo elections. As you know two thirds of the people in the recent elections did not vote, well that represents 1.8 million out of 2.7 million. My question, how can you say that LegCo represents the whole of Hong Kong when two thirds of registered voters did not vote?

Governor: Well, how can you say on that argument that a President of the United States doesn't represent the United States when half the electorate of America doesn't vote, or when he is only elected by a minority of the electorate. I think what's remarkable in Hong Kong and The Economist business magazine the other day had a chart on this is to see how there has been such a rapid build-up in the number of people taking part in our elections and voting in our elections from about six thousand, literally six thousand in the early 1980's to well, how many votes were cast in the recent LegCo elections, it was 1.4 million I think, 920,000 in the geographical constituencies. What has actually happened over the last year or so, is that we have seen that each of our elections has produced records. The District Board elections had a record turnout, the Municipal Council elections record turnout, the Legislative Council elections as well. I think we are moving steadily in the right direction, we are giving people in Hong Kong that democracy which they were promised by China and Britain in the mid 1980's and they are responding to it with considerable moderation and maturity.

Question: Mr Patten, those two thirds of people who did not vote then, do you suggest that they are actually represented in LegCo or not, because they did not actually express their opinion. In fact the opinion polls before the election showed that 50% of people were actually undecided, so that really there is only one third of Hong Kong that's represented in LegCo.

Governor: Well, what are you saying? Are you saying that the 40% plus or whatever who don't vote in a Presidential election in the United States aren't represented because they don't vote? Let me put it another way, in the District Board elections last year which were the first ones we have had in Hong Kong which have been wholly democratic, the turnout was higher than in the last local elections when I was Chairman of the Conservative Party back in Britain and nobody said about those elections, well it just shows we shouldn't have had local democracy in Britain for the last century. It just shows that we should go back to appointing people to run things rather than electing people to run things. The fact of the matter is that Hong Kong has come a very long way in a very short time. As it was promised, it's handled those political developments I think with great skill and maturity and I am delighted that election after election more and more people turn out to vote. If people don't choose to register or having registered don't choose to vote, I think that is sad because I'd like to see them discharging their civic responsibilities, but I'm delighted that there are so many more people in the other category.