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11.
I have decided to separate the membership of the Executive and Legislative Councils. This will end the arrangement whereby some political groups are represented on it while others are not. It will free LegCo politicians to develop their parties and programmes in the run-up to the very important 1995 Legco elections. And I am going to institute a Governor's Question Time in the Legislative Council, at which I will make myself available regularly to answer questions. A new Government-LegCo Business Committee will be set up in which the Government will discuss the handling of its Legislative and financial programmes with members of Legco. All this will strengthen the acountability of the Government - and more accountable Government is stronger
Government.
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12.
Just as important, though are arrangements for the 1995 elections. The British Government has consistently emphasised that it would press the case for an increase in the number of directly elected seats for the 1995 elections. The Foreign Secretary did this at his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister on 25 September, and will continue to do so with vigour.
13.
But it is not the only way of building up democracy in Hong Kong. I am keen that we should explore in parallel how to develop our representative
institutions to the maximum extent within the terms of the Basic Law. There are a number of ways in which this
They include reducing the voting age from
could be done.
21 to 18; expanding the electorate for the functional constituencies to Hong Kong's entire working population; abolishing appointment to Hong Kong's local government the District Boards
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and replacing appointment with direct elections; and using the members of the District
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