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16.
on
The Urban Council and Regional Council attach importance to having their two elected representatives the Legislative Council, providing a useful and necessary
administrative and political link. District Board members
Board
the also consider their indirect representation on, Legislative Council, via the Electoral College, of similar importance.
17.
Appointed members: this element in the Council
continues to enjoy substantial public support. It is not
expected that anyone would advocate abolition of seats
allocated to appointed members at this stage, but some reduction may be suggested. They are accepted as a very
useful method of balancing the representation of community
interests in the Council and including significant and competent people who would not normally stand for election.
18. Directly elected members: it seems likely that the
introduction of about eight to 10 directly elected members
would meet the expectations of those in Hong Kong in favour
of direct elections. To add 10 directly elected members to
the present Council, as well as say four more functional constituency members and
and four more official members, would
produce a Council of 74. It would produce a balance more
strongly in favour of directly and indirectly elected members from district and regional constituencies (compared
with functional, appointed and official members).
balance would be tipped even more strongly in favour of
elected members if the number of appointed members were to
be reduced.
The
19.
Some criticism has been voiced that the Electoral
College is too narrowly based for producing members of Legislative Council. It has been suggested that if directly
elected members are introduced, District Board Electoral
College members should make way for them. The main argument
for the District Board Electoral College members was to produce
a reasonably balanced geographical distribution of
members. The media and public opinion have noted that the
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