TNAG-2595-FCO40-3783-Appointment-of-Chris-Patten-as-new-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--Ap-1992 — Page 98

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[Basic Law, Article 68] is the only way to ensure one vote, one value and to encourage everyone to participate on an equal basis. Functional representation is flawed in principle and unfair in practice.

5.5

The Basic envisages the existence of thirty members of LegCo

L elected from unctional constituencies at least up to 2007. After that it provides for a method of altering the formation of LegCo [Annex II, para III]. What would happen if those elected as functional representatives collectively decided, on principle, to resign in favour of extending direct democracy to the present fourteen or the future thirty seats is another matter! Barring such a challenging move, functional representation will presumably exist for at least another Gifteen years and so we recommend that ways and means of improving the electoral process be considered.

5.6

It is inconsistent to have detailed regulations for the direct elections but to bave only minimal control of the functional elections. The obvious step would be to bring the two in line as far as possible. This would include:

☐ a common date of registration of voters, both individual and

corporate;

regulations defining the qualifications for membership of such a register,

regulations detailing the qualifications required to be a candidate for election;

regulations relating to the conduct of the election - secrecy of ballot etc.

5.7

The most serious practical drawback of functional representation as currently provided for, however, is the ability under the present rules for the election process to be manipulated in those constituencies where the electorate consists of organisations rather than individuals. In such cases a trade union with the minumum seven members and one with thousands of members both have one vote; a newly formed social welfare organisation with a handful of members can exercise the same electoral influence as a long established body with many hundreds of members.

5.8

However, whilst functional representation exists, it would not be difficult to devise regulations that both ensured a broad equivalence between numbers of members and registered votes, and, in due course, weighted the number of representatives elected according the the numbers of electors. This would require:

a definition of an organisation eligible to register, including basic elements of constitution, etc; in particular, given the seven year qualifying period for an individual direct vote, we recommend a two year qualifying period for an organisation to acquire a functional vote;

a definition of membership of such organsiation, involving basic subscriptions, time in membership, cut off date for registration of members, and of lasping unpaid members.

an official register of voters, available for public inspection, and safeguards against dual membership, both of registered organisational voters and of individual lists;

formula for linking membership numbers with multiple votes.

In due course the extra LegCo seats could then be allocated pro rat

seats coul to registered membership.

5.9

The question of democratising the functional representation as far as possible becomes much more important in relation to the Selection of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [The Basic Law, Annex I, and the Decision of the National People's Congress on the Method for the Formation of the First Government and the First Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]. The first Chief Executive, who will, in effect, be the Prime Minister of Hong Kong, will be recommended in 1996 to the Central People's Government for appointment by a Selection Committee of 400 members. Subsequent Chief Executives will be elected by an Election Committee of 800 (unless the provisions are amended in the same way as those for LegCo, see 5.5. above).

5.10

Under both methods 75 per cent of the representatives will come from functional constituencies. In other words 100, and thereafter 200, Committee members will come from each of the following sectors: Industrial, commercial and financial; The professions; Labour, social services, religious and other sectors. The remaining 25 per cent will be made up of political individuals who have

served in representative capacities. We believe that the existing processes for functional representation are already flawed in relation to LegCo representation but would be wholly unsatisfactory if applied to the far larger body of members to be elected to the Selection and Election Committees. The reforms outlined in 5.6 and 5.8 above need to be considered so as to be in place in time for the first such election.

5.11

There are great advantages in the use of preferential voting in multi-member constituencies - the Single Transferable Vote (STV) - for functional representation when this sector is enlarged in subsequent LegCo election. But elections for the Selection and Election Committees are of a different order altogether and if their membership is going to be representative of the different sectors it is vital that STV be used for the election. One parallel in Great Britain is the election for the Church of England Synod - the church's parliament - where STV ensures the fair representation of the different strands of opinion and emphasis. Without STV it is likely that in each constituency in each diocese the dominant group would be considerably over represented, thus exacerbating the serious tensions within the church. It is probable that the same difficulties would become apparent within Hong Kong at a particularly sensitive moment in its history.

5.12

Before we turn to the Administration of Elections we wish to re-emphasise that it is up to Hong Kong people to translate our comments on electoral systems into the Chinese context. We were told variously by Chinese respondents that:

there is no Chinese political tradition comparable to that in Western democracies;

Hong Kong people are too practical to concern themselves with political philosophy;

there are informal structures that are democratic in the Chinese context;

the lack of "full-time" politicians is a serious bandicap;

"politics" is too often equated with Communism;