W£RY{{ "m"
CONFIDENTIAL
18.
At the beginning of 1985 the
>
resident in the urban
electoral roll carried over 1.4
million name s representing 49% of an estimated total potential
electora te of 2.9 million. Of those registered, over 995,000 were
areas and thus en titled to vote at Urban
Council elections and
at District Board election s for urban area
constituencies; over 426,000 were resident in the New Territories
and entitled to vote at District Board election s in the New
Territories and at elections for the new Regional Council to be held
in March 1986.
(b)
Urban Council
19.
a
autonomy.
soon
its
It
The Urban Council, which has had elected members since
after its inception in the 1880 s as the Sanitary Board, h ad
elected membership increased to 12 members in 1973 when it was
reconstituted as
statutory
financial body with
became the only government body which both exercised executive
and included powers
elected
1983 the franchise was
a constituency basis, and the Urban
Council's membership was increased from 24 to 30. 15 of its members
are elected, and 15 are appointed by the Governor.
widened and rearranged on
members.
In
(c)
Regional Council
20.
perform
A
Regional Council new
functions
at
proposed
to cover the
non-urban areas and to
Council,
was
reforms for
a im
was
similar to those of the Urban
the same time as the
The Hong Kong Government's
participation in the provision of particularly in view of the large increase in population in
the District Boards.
to obtain greater public
of services in the New Territories,
towns,
the new
both actual and expected and also to correct the anomaly of a
range of services to
a wide
partly-elected Urban Council providing the public in the urban areas, while similar services were provided
to the public in the New Territories by a Hong
Kong
Government
department.
- 7
CONFIDEN TI AL
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