TNAG-2211-FCO40-3171-Appointments-to-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 25

KWAI TSING DISTRICT

(a)

(b)

LegCo Election

Respondents were generally a bit dis- appointed with the turnout rate. They attributed this to a lack of charismatic candidates in some constituencies, poor performance of some candi- dates on TV, political apathy on the part of the general public and too many elections held this year. Nevertheless they considered the 1991 LegCo election as a milestone in the development of representative government in HK and hoped that the next election in 1995 would attract a larger turnout.

Some respondents were, however, worried that the landslide victory of the United Democrats might strain the. relationship between China and HK. Also, they were concerned that the efficiency of the Government might deteriorate as political bickering at the LegCo would inevitably increase.

Appointment of LegCo Members

As reported earlier, respondents did not support the United Democrats' requests to the Governor. Generally, they regarded such action as undemocratic and an attempt to extend the party's political influence in the name of

democracy. Some referred to the liberal-dominated Kwai Tsing DB and commented that the liberals, once in power, would try every means to oust those not considered to be having the same "ideology" as themselves. It was stressed that the appointment should be at the absolute discretion of the Governor who should not succumb to the pressure of any political party. The new list of LegCo appointments was generally welcomed by respondents who agreed that the new appointees had good community service records, sound professional background and, most important of all, were independent of any political group.