TNAG-2450-FCO40-3567-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1992 — Page 215

SECRET

this 012/2

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

File

14 August 1992

Mr Peter Lai

Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs

Government Secretariat

HONG KONG

(by classified FAX)

Dear fete,

London SWIA 2AH

Telephone: 071-

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS WORKING GROUP: ELECTION COMMITTEE

1. We have now received and studied the papers discussed at the meeting on 6 August, for which many thanks. They show that most perhaps all the points raised in my letters of 11 and 12 August had already occurred to the experts.

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2. Kay Saunders will be offering one or two thoughts on the other papers, but could I add a further comment on the Election Committee. This is mainly to congratulate Constitutional Affairs Branch on devising so ingenious a model for the Election Committee on Basic Law lines, but heavily reliant on the present or planned functional constituencies plus locally elected representatives. Frankly we had not imagined that it would be possible to come up with a model with so substantial a degree of democratic legitimacy and probably so difficult for government to manipulate. It also has an internal logic, which could make it harder for the Chinese to negotiate significant dilution (although this could make our consultations about re-drawing the functional constituencies all the more tortuous). It would be quite a prize to secure Chinese acquiescence to a 400-member Committee on these lines, with the possible implications for the future Selection Committee.

3.

I note the risk of criticism of double representation for functional constituency voters, but this aspect is perhaps reasonably justifiable at the present stage of HongKong's political development: better that they should have an extra voice that that the Government (or Governments) should have the only voice. And the dynamics of the Electoral Committee would be different from those within individual functional constituencies (particularly if the Committee uses a sophisticated voting procedure).

4.

for

On a point of detail I am not sure how odd it would seem

outgoing (or outgone) LegCo members to have seats on

el.comm/CONST.njc

SECRET