TNAG-1288-FCO40-1639-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 11

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In these circumstances, the White Paper will say that, whilst the Government has no objections to direct elections, it believes that the first step should be to introduce the modified and expanded proposals for indirect elections in 1985. The question of direct elections can then be further considered in 1987 against the background of experience gained from the operation and effect of the indirect election system now being proposed.

B THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

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The Green Paper proposed that the majority of the appointed Unofficial members of the Executive Council should be replaced progressively by members elected by the Unofficial members of the Legislative Council, with four Unofficial members being elected in 1988 and eight in 1991. At the same time, the number of appointed members of the Executive Council should be reduced to four in 1988 and two in 1991.

two in 1991. The number of ex-officio members should remain at four. The position would be reviewed at the same time as the review of Legislative Council.

the

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There has been much less comment on the Executive Council proposals than on those about the Legislative Council. There has been some support for the proposal that the Executive Council should be elected by the Legislative Council by 1991, although there have been a few suggestions that this process should start in 1985 rather than 1988, and also that all the Unofficial members should be elected in due course. On the other hand, there have been some suggestions that the Unofficial members of the Executive Council should be selected from among the members of the Legislative Council by an elected Chief Executive. Other comments have concerned the general questions of accountability to the Legislative Council, and executive responsibility for Unofficial members.

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As the proposals concerning the Executive Council appear to be generally acceptable, it is not proposed to modify any of them in the White Paper. However, if the review of the position of the Legislative Council is brought forward to 1987, as proposed in paragraph 34 above, there will be an opportunity then to review the proposals concerning the Executive Council again before any of them are actually implemented.