TNAG-1288-FCO40-1639-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 8

24

asked to consider in memorandum XCC (84) 115 proposals for the functional constituency elections and other related matters earlier in this meeting and, subject to Members' approval of those proposals, the preparation of necessary legislation will be put in hand as soon as possible to provide for elections

the Legislative Council by functional constituencies. Any amendment to the number of members to be elected by functional constituencies in 1988 will be decided later, in the context of the general review of the position in 1987.

Appointed Unofficial members

25

to

It was proposed in the Green Paper that the number of appointed Unofficial members should be reduced progressively to 23 in 1985 and 16 in 1988.

26

Public comment on

this proposal has varied widely, from strong support for the retention of appointed Unofficial members on the Council for as long as possible and for their retention instead of the election of Unofficial members by functional constituencies, to suggestions

stions that their numbers should be reduced much more rapidly with a view to their complete removal by the end of this decade.

27

In view of the proposals made in paragraph 18 and memorandum XCC (84) 115 that the number of Unofficial members to be elected in 1985 by the electoral college and the functional constituencies should be increased to 12 and 12 respectively, either the overall size of the Council will have to be increased or there will have to be a further reduction in the number of appointed and official members. A possible alternative is

is now proposed which would reduce

which would reduce the number of appointed Unofficial members to 22 and Official members to ten with a slight increase in the size of the Council to 56.

Official members

28

It was proposed in the Green Paper that the three ex-officio members of the Legislative Council, the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary and the Attorney General, should remain on the Council,

the Council, but that

that the overall number of Official members should be reduced progressively to 13 in 1985 and ten in 1988.

29

Some commentators have suggested that

have suggested that the number of Official members should be reduced still further, but the general view has been in favour of the proposals.