XN000022-1995-10-13 — Page 25

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Chief Secretary: The government's position and for that matter, the UK government's position on the legislature had been made abundantly clear. But in case it is not let me repeat it here. We have always felt that the constitutional reforms which were passed by way of legislation by our legislature are fully in accordance with the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. They were what the people of Hong Kong wanted and this has been reflected very strongly in the actual conduct of the election in the record number of people who actually voted and the number of people who actually stood for election. We now have a credible legislature elected in an open and fair manner reflecting the views of the community of Hong Kong. We have a broad cross section of community opinion reflected in the legislature and in my view if we want to see a smooth transition and we all want to see that, clearly an experienced legislature with continuity in the legislature will do a great deal to ensure a smooth transition. We see no reason why this current legislature and the people elected into the legislature cannot be expected to serve their full four-year term which will of course take them to 1999. I refer just now to the Chinese' wish to see a smooth transition and bearing that in mind I'm sure they will have regard to the opinions expressed by the people of Hong Kong. Of course to a large extent it also depends on how the new Legislative Council will function. We have held preliminary discussions with the all the political parties. I think all political parties are very conscious of the responsibilities that they have on their shoulders. They are all determined to work in co-operation with the Hong Kong government. On my part, speaking on behalf of all my colleagues in the civil service, we certainly wish to start a constructive dialogue with the legislature. There is a great deal of work to be gone through and I am sure that with the co-operation of civil servant and the legislature we will get through this programme. So I repeat again we see no reason why the legislature should be dismantled and we very much hope that all the members elected will be able to serve out their full four-year term.

Question: Mrs Chan, there is a recent report on "60 Minutes" that described the voter turnout rate in Taiwan being 75 per cent and that compared of course to about 35 per cent here in Hong Kong despite the fact the government has spent a lot of money publicising the LegCo election last September. I was wondering if you care to comment on the difference in voter turnout rate in ...

Chief Secretary: I am not sure that it is particularly meaningful to compare one voter turnout rate with that of another. The circumstances are totally different. I think that by world standards, the percentage of turnout rate that we had for our last election was pretty good and if you consider it with the voter turnout rate and particularly more importantly I think the actual numbers who voted, we had a record 920,000 people turning up to vote which was about 170,000 more than in the 1991 election. So I would say that that fully reflects that there is enthusiasm on the part of the community to participate in the elections.

End/Friday, October 13, 1995