TNAG-1596-FCO40-2181-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 132

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(c)

5.

members elected by a broadly based "Grand Electoral College".

Hong Kong already has experience of the first method of

election, i.e. by functional constituencies, and it appears that this form of election has general support within the community.

The question of whether the electoral college system based on

geographical constituencies should be retained and further

developed, or should be replaced instead by a system of direct elections to the Legislative Council, is one of the issues put

forward for public comment in the 1987 Review.

6.

The idea that a proportion of the Legislature might be

elected by a broadly based "Grand Electoral College" (GEC)

(paragraph 4(c)) has emerged in the process of consultation on the

drating of the Basic Law. It has also been put forward in the Green

Paper: "the 1987 Review of Developments in Representative

#

Government, as a matter for discussion for the longer term.

Specifically, paragraph 110 of the Green Paper states that a

considerable amount of further thought and discussion would be

required on issues such as the exact composition and membership of

such a college, the proportion of members to be elected by it and

the procedures to be adopted for nominating and electing candidates.

As suggested in paragraph 10 of Note 1, one option would be for the

Chief Executive to present to the GEC a list of his nominees for

election to the Legislature. To provide for a fair election, with a

genuine choice between candidates, the number of candidates

nominated would need to be greater than the number of seats

available.

7.

an

Whichever combination of methods of election are chosen,

important consideration will be to ensure that the views of all

sectors of the population are adequately represented in the Legislature. If the Legislature were composed of the three groups

of members indicated in paragraph 4 above it should be possible to

ensure that such an objective were met in that:

(a)

representatives of the functional constituencies would speak

for the major territory-wide organisations and professional bodies in sectors crucial to the economic and social well

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