TNAG-2455-FCO40-3576-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-presentation-1992 — Page 66

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on to ExCo some respected members of the Community without party political involvement. He will also be taking other steps to improve accountability: he will step down as President of LegCo and make himself available regularly to answer questions there. A new Government/LegCo Business Committee will be established to enable the administration to discuss the handling of its legislative and financial programmes with representatives of LegCo.

These steps are all part of maintaining effective British administration of Hong Kong up to 1 July 1997, and on these issues the Governor will therefore be announcing decisions.

Second, there are the changes that will be needed for the 1995 LegCo elections. I have previously assured the House that we would continue to press the case for a faster pace of democratisation. I did so when I met the Chinese Foreign Minister in New York on 25 September. The Chinese position remains that the Basic Law cannot be changed before 1997, and that no increase in the number of directly elected seats in 1995 beyond the 20 set out in the Basic Law will therefore be possible. We will continue to make the case for more directly elected seats in 1995 with vigour. But this is not the only way of building up democracy in Hong Kong.

With our

agreement, the Governor will therefore be exploring in parallel how to develop Hong Kong's representative institutions to the maximum extent within the terms of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.

The Governor proposes a very substantial increase in the degree of democracy in Hong Kong. The key points. (summarised in the annex) include lowering the voting age to 18;

making the District Boards fully directly elected; greatly expanding the electorate for the LegCo functional constituencies to include the entire working population; and ensuring that the members of the Election Committee who will elect 10 LegCo members should themselves have been elected (for example the Committee could draw all or most of its members from the directly-elected District Board members). this way, every level of representative Government up to and including LegCo will have been formed on the basis of broadly based, fair and open elections.

In

To maximise the chances of continuity in 1997, we shall be discussing the electoral arrangements with the Chinese side, starting with the Governor's visit to Peking from 21-23 October. On these issues, therefore, the Governor will be announcing proposals in his LegCo speech. But they are the result of much careful thought here and in Hong Kong and represent what we believe will best serve Hong Kong's interests. We shall need to conclude discussions with the Chinese side in time to start making the necessary practical arrangements early in 1993.

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