The District Boards are composed of elected and appointed members and also includes the Chairman of the various rural committees. According to Hong Kong Government materials, in the 1988-1991 District Boards, 264 members were democratically elected and 141 were appointed. In the 10 March 1988 District Board elections there were 493 candidates for 264 places of which 34 seats were elected without opposition. In the seats that were contested, there were altogether 1.4m registered electors of whom 424,444 (about 30.3 per cent) voted.
The powers of the District Boards are:
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To provide advice on a wide range of matters affecting the welfare of the people who live or work in the district; the provision and use of arrangements for use of public facilities and services within the region; monitoring whether or not there are sufficient and orderly arrangements for the Government plans for that region; relevant use of Government funds for small-scale projects and so on.
To be responsible for small-scale environmental improvement projects within the District and promoting recreational and cultural activities within the District. In 1988-89, the District Boards used 42.68m dollars on such projects.
Meeting residents. This can be done by the District Boards or by individual members. Usually the residents want help in solving questions where they are not satisfied with the Government or have opinions to put forward on matters within the region or proposals for improving things.
Every district has a district Management Committee, which liaises with the District Board and listens to the opinions of it. The District Management Committee is chaired by the district officer and its members include representatives from all the various Government Departments which provide services to the residents of the district.region.
In sum, the establishment and development of the district organizations has acted as a channel for advice and opinion concerning environment, health, culture and recreational work in Hong Kong and has been of considerable use. After 1997, the Hong Kong SAR Government will of course want to use district organizations in its own service so that they can contribute to the construction of the SAR. For this reason, Article 97 of the Basic Law laid down some principles for the powers of these organizations in addition to defining their nature. It said that these organizations may be "consulted by the Government of the region on District administration and other affairs or to be responsible for providing services and such fields as culture, recreation and environmental sanitation".
These provisions in the Basic Law are pretty good. Firstly, they have not made any distinctions between the powers of the District Boards, the Regional Council and the Urban Council. The Basic Law's general provisions on these powers are those of the
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