TNAG-1597-FCO40-2182-Hong-Kong-1987-Review-of-Representative-Government-1987 — Page 49

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19.

There has been some criticism of the voting

arrangements at the 1985 elections.

Some social workers and

members of labour unions were unhappy at not having an

individual vote as in the case of teachers, doctors and

the Social Services and Labour constituencies

lawyers.

votes were given to

social welfare agencies and labour

unions because of the difficulty of defining qualifications

for membership of these constituencies.

The type of

preferential voting

footnote) was also

system used in the elections (see

criticised and will need to be

re-examined if the functional constituency system of

election is to be retained. This is examined in greater

detail in Chapter

Options for 1988

20.

the

Indeed,

Most of views publicly expressed continue to be in

favour of retaining functional constituencies as a system

for selecting members of the Legislative Council.

there have been calls for its expansion to include more

sectors of the community. It would clearly be impossible,

however, for functional constituencies alone to serve as the

basis for representation of all sectors of the community, if

only because of the problems of defining membership. The

specific contribution which functional constituencies can

to the further development of representative

therefore be carefully considered before

decisions are taken on which further sectors of the

community might appropriately be represented in this way.

make

government

must

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