TNAG-1596-FCO40-2181-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 117

DOGAAL

NOTE 1

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

METHOD OF SELECTION

SECRET

1.

Section I of Annex I to the Joint Declaration states: "The

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall

be selected by election or through consultations held locally and be appointed by the Central People's Government".

2.

Paper II of May 1986 referred to three possible methods of selecting the Chief Executive which had been publicly discussed in

Hong Kong.

These were:

(a)

by contested direct election among all qualified candidates

on the basis of universal suffrage;

(b)

(c)

by election among members of the Legislature, if necessary

after consultation among them, on a short list of eligible

candidates from within or outside the Legislature;

by consultation, followed if necessary by election, in some

wider electoral college to provide a broader basis for the

election.

3.

It concluded that option (a) would be unlikely to find

favour in Hong Kong, at its present stage of development, as it would be regarded as a major and fundamental change too likely to lead to highly charged adversarial politics and thus instability. further point is that selection by a process of contested direct

election would tend to favour the high-profile politician rather

than, for example, a less well-known but nevertheless able

administrator.

A

SECRET