TNAG-1839-FCO40-2614-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 21

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret

Secret

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)

authority with responsibility for the area outside the

jurisdiction of the Urban Council.

Elections to the

Urban Council, Regional Council and District Boards are

now on a geographical constituency basis and through a

broad franchise. Practically everyone who is 21 years of

age or over and has been a Hong Kong permanent resident

for 7 years or more, is entitled to register to vote.

PRIVACY MARKING

In Confidence

29.

The development of a more representative form of

government at the central level had also begun in the

1970s, with the expansion of the Legislative Council to

include more non official members. But at the time of

the signing of the Joint Decelaration, there were no

elected members of the Legislative Council: all were

appointed. Following public consultation in 1984 on the

basis of a Green Paper published in July 1984, the Hong

Kong Government announced in its White Paper of November

1984 that an indirectly elected element would be

introduced into the Legislative Council in the elections

of 1985: twelve members were duly elected from

'functional' constituencies based on major professional

and occupational groups;

and twelve others were elected

on a geographical basis by an electoral college

comprising all members of the urban and Regional Councile

and District Boards. (The other 32 members of the

ཨ་ལཾ.- .

Legislative Council were either officials or appointed

members.)

30. The 1984 White Paper also considered the question

of direct elections to the Legislative Council..

It not