TNAG-1844-FCO40-2619-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 54

63

FRO

TECK FAI IN

TO FOO HENS

PAREL A.

TRAESCRIPT C BONG KONG SELECT COMMITTER NEETING

M

22 MAR 89

12

FURBIGE SECRETARY :

If you

It depends on where you are starting from you see, look at the position in 1985, that was when indirect elections fur 24 members of LEGCO were first introduced. 1991 provides for 10 directly-elected seats and a further 16 seats indirectly elected.

The draft Basic Law provides for a wholly elected

Legislature by 1997 with the directly-elected by then up to 27 percent of the total, compared with 18 percent in 1991.

So there is progress from here to 1991 and from there to

what 1: In the Basic Lav.

IR SHORA:

But the progress is really largely confined to the

substitution of appointed members by those who are elected through

these rather strange Hong Kong constituencies that are not

directly elected.

FOREICE SECRETARY:

One must again come back to the reality of Hong Kong history, that elections have only relatively recently become part

of the scene there. The indirect elections have formed an

important part of the process, we are now talking about the LEGCO

elections. And what we are seeing, therefore, is an expansion of

the indirect elections alongise a growth of the direct electious

so that you have a wholly elected Legislature by 1997 with more

That is a 50 percent than one-quarter of it directly elected

increase on the direct elections in 1991.