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pa Elechons
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MDHIAN 7960
SECRET
FM PEKING
TO IMMEDIATE FCO
TELNO 1335
OF 050918Z OCTOBER 93
TOP COPY QDI
INFO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG, UKREP JLG HONG KONG
HONG KONG TELNO 1563: BOUNDARY AND ELECTION COMMISSION
1.
We agree with the conclusion in TUR that it would be sensible to seek legislative amendment to extend to 30 Apri 1994 the deadline for the Boundary and Election Commission (BEC) to submit its recommendations on the 1995 Municipal Council (MC) constituency boundaries. We also agree that we should inform the Chinese about the proposed amendment. In doing so we think we should give a clear exposition of the reasons, emphasising that it would be a waste of the Hong Kong tax-payer's money to require the BEC to prepare such recommendations while Sino-British talks are continuing and the British side has therefore not reached a final decision on its recommendation to LegCo for the number of MC seats to be elected in 1994. We should point out that, although 30 April 1994 would be the deadline for submission, in practical terms this means that the talks would have had to reach a conclusion several months before that to enable preparation work to take place. This should make clear that we are looking at the talks being completed in weeks rather than months.
2.
On timing for briefing the Chinese, I would much prefer 13 October for practical reasons; mainly because we shall be wrapping up Round 13 in the afternoon of 12 October.
3.
In connection with this deadline, we take it that Hong Kong still have it in mind to review Later this month the question of gazetting the commencement notice to bring into operation the remaining parts of the BEC Ordinance (Hong Kong telno 1407). It remains our view that it would be much better to defer gazettal until the talks on the 1994/95 elections have concluded (our telno 1186 and your telno 800 to Hong Kong).
MCLAREN
YYYY
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