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"Implementation of these provisions, or amendments to these provisions, will be a matter for the Chinese Government and the future HKSAR Government," he said.

"I would, therefore, only want to state two points of fact.

"First, that Article 45 of the Basic Law provides that 'the ultimate aim is the selection of the CE by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures'.

"Secondly, that Article 68 provides that 'the ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage'."

Mr Ng noted that it was perfectly natural that the Hong Kong community should take close interest in the processes for selecting the CE, and forming the HKSAR Legislature, as these were self-evidently crucial to the credibility of the HKSAR Government.

"Equally, it is perfectly understandable that our community should expect these processes to be nothing less than open, transparent and fair, and to make their expectations known.

"The Hong Kong Government fully shares these expectations, and would urge those responsible for determining the selection and formation processes to take full account of them," said Mr Ng.

End

Motion debate on "shadow government"

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Nicholas Ng, in the motion debate on "Shadow Government" in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

Miss Emily Lau's motion, and the amendment motions put forward by Mr Liu, Mr Chu and Mr Ip, raise a number of important transition issues. I would like to take the opportunity to set out the Hong Kong Government's position on these issues.