Region. The final draft which emerged from the Basic Law Drafting Committee last month and which will go to the Chinese National People's Congress later this month for promulgation, provides for 20 directly elected seats in 1997 and for further increases to 24 seats This is a considerable improvement on in 1999 and 30 seats in 2003.
earlier proposals and reflects a willingness by the Basic Law drafters to respond to the representations which we and others in Hong Kong have made. It was on that basis, and in the interests of continuity which we believe is what most Hong Kong people want, that we reached the decision to introduce 18 directly elected seats in
1991.
It is nonsense to suggest that we have simply caved in to the Chinese. Originally we were looking at only 10 directly elected seats in 1991 and we know that this is what the Chinese would have preferred. The figure which we have now announced is eight more than the Chinese preference.
In
Our decision for 1991 is just 2 seats below the OMELCO consensus which was to start with 20 directly elected seats in 1991. return for these 2 seats, we have secured Chinese agreement to a continuous upward slope in the development of democracy from 18 seats in 1991 to 30 seats in 2003, with the possibility that full
The Chinese proposal direct elections could be introduced in 2007. only a month ago was that there should be no more than 18 directly elected seats in 1997, with no commitment on further progress.
This rate of progress is not as rapid as many people in Hong Kong,
But in their statement of or we ourselves, would have liked to see.
16 February, OMELCO themselves welcomed the removal of a major uncertainty for the territory's future and stressed the importance of making a success of the 1991 elections.
We shall continue to press for a faster pace of democratisation.
As I This is why we have deliberately not fixed a figure for 1995. made clear in my statement on 16 February, we have simply said that it will not be less than 20. I hope that once the Chinese have seen the 1991 legislature working in practice, they will in due course come to accept our view that a higher proportion of directly elected
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