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41.
For the first chief executive?
(Mr McLaren)
For the first chief executive. The procedure for the
second and subsequent chief executives is different essentially because the
committee is to be a larger committee of 800 people.
42.
What comments has the Government to make on that proposal for
the subsequent chief executives? It is a long way off - 400 in the first
instance, and 800 people in the second, third and fourth instances
universal suffrage which is ultimately the goal. Are we confident that
that process is as good as we can get that procedure for identifying a
chief executive? I can hardly say electing, it is more like selecting.
(Mr Maude) I do not think it is a bad system. It is not as good as
election by universal suffrage which, as I said, is the ultimate aim, but
the annex to the Basic Law sets out how it should be done, by an election
committee who would vote in their individual capacities by secret ballot on
a one person-one vote basis. It requires that candidates for chief
executive should be nominated by not fewer than 100 members of that
election committee. So it is not ideal but it has some quite good elements
in it which I think will command confidence.
Chairman:
Could we move on now to the question of the safeguards
provided by the Basic Law for people generally?
Mr Rowlands
43.
There were, we know, in regard to the draft Basic Law and
indeed the Government's own attitude, reports of worries and concerns about
the possible ways in which the Chinese Government could interfere in Hong
Kong after 1997, in particular that Article 18 about emergency provisions
would allow the authorities in Mainland China, as it were, to intervene in
Hong Kong in "a state of turmoil". We understand this Article has now been
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