TNAG-2713-FCO40-3919-Parliamentary-relations-draft-White-Paper-on-Representative--1993 — Page 60

to be designed to ensure that seats go to parties winning

small percentages of the vote. In 1992 the Hong Kong

Legislative Council itself voted in favour of the single-seat,

single-vote system for Legislative Council elections and the

main political parties have recently reaffirmed their support

for it.

Election Committee

59.

Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong Government

consider that if the election of ten members of the

Legislative Council by an Election Committee is to be fair,

open and acceptable to the people of Hong Kong, two essential requirements will need to be satisfied:

60.

That members of the Election Committee should be elected

fairly and openly in Hong Kong.

The arrangements for the elections inside the Election Committee should themselves be open and fair.

The Governor's proposal in October 1992 was that the

Election Committee should draw all or most of its members from

the directly-elected District Boards; and that the Election

Committee should be able to vote for any qualified candidate,

not just for members of the Election Committee.

It

61. This proposal meets the two essential requirements.

would also provide a simple solution, since no new electoral machinery would be needed.

62.

The Chinese side's proposal (tabled in Round 7 of the

talks and later clarified, in response to repeated questions

from the British side, in Round 14) was that:

31

statement 26.8/BRIEFS/NJH

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