TNAG-1843-FCO40-2618-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 49

Only sensible to develop the Hong Kong Legislative Council in such a way as to ensure continuity after 1997. It would be pointless to put in place structures in the coming years which would

have to be dismantled in 1997.

(ii) PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT: DOES THE FACT

THAT ONLY 13 SEATS WERE CONTESTED IN THE LEGCO ELECTIONS IN 1988 AND

THE RELATIVELY LOW TURNOUT IN THE RECENT MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS SUGGEST

THAT MANY PEOPLE IN HONG KONG ARE NOT PARTICULARLY CONCERNED ABOUT

THE DEVELOPMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT?

- I certainly, do not believe that people in Hong Kong are not

interested in the development of representative government. The response to the 1987 review of developments in representative government is clear evidence of the importance which people in Hong Kong do attach to this question. The Survey Office recorded over 134,000 submissions commenting on the given paper, including over

4,000 submissions from groups of individuals and over 1,000 form

associates and other bodies. That is a comendable level of response

by any standards.

One should not judge interest in the question from the number of people who do or do not show for election or vote. In the 1988 Legco elections, 12 of the 13 seats which were not contested were

filled by existing incumbents, who may have been considered by other

political candidates to be in a strong position to return that

seats. The low voter turnout in the Municipal elections was

disappointing. This could result from a number of factors, including the frequency of elections in the last twelve months (this being the third set). Some have critised the publicity arrangements

for the elections.