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Mr Gapes
108.
On functional constituencies, would you say that this
dispute is much more to do with politics and power and who is going to be
on LegCo rather than anything to do with the legal basis on which these
elections are carried out?
(Mr Duffy) We are lawyers and can only advise on legal matters.
Certainly, on the legal matters my position is that nothing that the United
Kingdom has done constitutes a breach of its legal obligations under the
Quite the reverse.
Joint Declaration.
109.
Mr Canavan
On this dispute between the Governor and the PRC on whether
the election proposals are contrary to the Basic Law, do any of you know of
any respectable body of opinion in international legal circles that would
side strongly with the PRC on this matter rather than our own Government?
(Mr Duffy) The short answer to that is no.
110.
Dr Slinn referred to the main contentious areas being not
the increase in the number of functional constituencies and the method of
election within the functional constituencies, but there is another area
too of contention, namely, the Election Committee and the composition of
the Election Committee, and particularly the Governor's proposals that most
or all its members should be drawn from the District Boards. The Basic Law
It is
is strangely silent on one aspect of this. It describes the membership of
the Election Committee of the second SAR LegCo but not the first.
clear that the first SAR LegCo Committee is not that as described in the
Annex I of the Basic Law. Was that an oversight on the part of the
drafters of the Basic Law, and one that Governor Patten': legal advisers
have seen and are simply trying to exploit?
(Mr Keller)
An argument which has been put forward, again in the
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Private notes are available after approval.