TNAG-2712-FCO40-3918-Parliamentary-relations-draft-White-Paper-on-Representative--1993 — Page 119

ISSUE

FUNCTIONAL CONSTITUENCIES (FCs) (FOR 30 SEATS: 21 EXISTING, 9 NEW)

ELECTION COMMITTEE

(EC) (FOR 10 SEATS)

PROPOSALS ANNOUNCED BY THE GOVERNOR IN OCT 92

Abolition of corporate voting in existing FCS. Proposed electorate for the nine new FCs would extend the franchise to the entire 2.7 million workforce.

The Election Committee should itself be composed of elected members, and should elect the 10 seats by open and fair means. The Committee should draw all or most of its members from the directly-elected

District Boards.

The

10 seats should be able to be filled by any person qualified to stand for election to LegCo (ie not just members of the Election Committee).

REVISED PROPOSALS PUT FORWARD BY THE BRITISH SIDE DURING THE TALKS

Proposals for existing 21 FCs unchanged. The 9 new FCs to be based on organisations as the Chinese had requested with 6 of the 9 specific proposals built on Chinese proposals. The potential electorate reduced to about 860,000.

A Four-Sector Election Committee, composed on the lines of Annex I of the Basic Law, but all members would be elected. The first three sectors would be elected by the voters in 27 of the FCS organised into three groups of nine, (see Annex). The fourth sector would be composed of the remaining 3 FCs and members of the District Boards. Election Committee members would be elected to the Four Sectors by block vote. The Four Sectors would then elect candidates (ie a qualified person with at least five nominations by Committee members) to the 10 Legislative Council seats by single transferable vote.

CHINESE PROPOSALS PUT FORWARD DURING THE TALKS

The existing FCS should be unchanged. The nine new FCs should all be based on corporate voting and with very small constituencies. (This could give undue influence to certain prominent individuals with corporate interests spanning several FCs).

A Four-part EC, mirroring Annex I of the Basic Law, but with about 600, not 800 members. The Fourth sector would include all Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress, and representatives of Hong Kong members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (none of whom are elected in Hong Kong). Each sector would return three candidates from members of their sector by block vote. The Committee would then elect 10 of these 12 to serve on LegCo by simple majority vote.