TNAG-1840-FCO40-2615-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 66

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret

Secret

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

PRIVACY MARKING

DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)

forum for public consultation and participation in

administration at the district level. In 1986 the

Regional Council was established as the statutory

authority with responsibility for the area outside the

jurisdiction of the Urban Council. Elections to the

Urban Council (since 1981), Regional Council and District

Boards now take place on a geographical constituency

basis, with a broad franchise embracing all residents who

are 21 years of age or over and have lived in Hong Kong

for 7 years or more.

In Confidence

32.

The development of a more representative form of

government at the central level also began in the 1970s,

with the expansion of the Legislative Council to include

more members who are not officials. Such members formed

a majority of the Council for the first time in 1976, and

by 1984 they constituted 62.5% of the membership (ie 29

out of the then total of 47 members). But there were no

elected members of the Legislative Council when the

Joint Declaration was signed: all were appointed.

Following public consultation on the basis of a Green

Paper published in July 1984, the Hong Kong Government

announced in their White Paper of November 1984 that an

indirectly elected element would be introduced into the

Legislative Council as from October 1985. 12 members of

the enlarged Council of 56 were duly elected from

•

functional' constituencies based on major professional

and occupational groups; 12 others were elected on a

geographical basis by an electoral college comprising all

members of the Urban and Regional Councils and District