HONG KONG
GOVERNOR'S PROPOSALS ON CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Governor's proposals are the result of wide-ranging consultations. They respond to the rapid growth of political awareness in Hong Kong in recent years, and have the full support of the British Government.
- Mr Patten is aiming to make Hong Kong's administration more effective and accountable, and the electoral system more fair and democratic, while doing his best to ensure that the changes introduced under British administration will survive beyond 1997.
- Believe strong executive-led Government, and vigorous democratic institutions, are the best means of safeguarding Hong Kong's way of life.
- The Governor's proposals are fully consistent with the Joint Declaration and the wording of the Basic Law. They do not contravene the diplomatic exchanges which took place in 1990.
Simplest way to extend democracy would be to increase number of directly-elected seats at 1995 Legislative Council elections beyond the 20 laid down in the Basic Law. This remains our view.
But, given Chinese position that Basic Law cannot be changed, Governor decided to explore in parallel how to use to the full the scope for broadening democratic participation within the terms of the Basic Law.
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Key points of Governor's proposals for the 1995 LegCo elections: voting age to be reduced from 21 to 18; single seat, single vote for 20 geographical consistencies; greatly expanded electorate for the 30 functional constituencies, to embrace everyone in the workforce; members of the Election Committee required to elect 10 members of LegCo to be themselves elected (eg the Committee could draw all or most of its membership from the directly-elected District Board members); an independent Boundary and Election Commission to be set up.
- This package would ensure that all representative institutions in Hong Kong are formed through broadly-based fair and open elections.
- In due course Governor needs to put draft legislation to
LegCo. Formal publication of the draft legislation is just the first step. Will then be for LegCo to strike balance reflecting views of the community.
- We and the Governor have said we will accept LegCo's judgement, provided it is compatible with our international
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