TNAG-2727-FCO40-3933-Hong-Kong-political-parties-Association-for-Democracy-and-Pe-1993 — Page 87

(2)

They are

more in keeping with the equitable principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights: The Association advocates that for the 1995 Legco election, each voter should have the same number of votes. Under the Governor's constitutional reform proposals, only two thirds of the voters in Hongkong (about 2.7 million people) have two votes (in functional

constituencies

and

geographical constituencies). As to the remaining one million eligible voters, they only have the voting right of

vote which

to geographical constituencies. This constitutes a phenomenon inequality which can be eliminated by the principle of "one person one vote" as recommended by the Association.

one

(3)

The

pertains

of

functional social

abolition by stages of the constituency elections which create polarizations and inequalities : Hongkong is a diversified society. Every constituency should be an entity which maintains a balance of the interests of the various strata. Hence, this will ensure to a certain extent that an elected councillor, when formulating policies, will not narrowly consider the interests of a particular stratum to the neglect of the overall interests of the society. The spirit of the present functional constituency elections is nothing but that of a election mechanism that lays interests of "small

stress on the sectarian cliques", engenders a manifest partisanship in the legislative assembly, exacerbates the conflict of interests and class contradiction, thereby fostering the polarization of the forces of society which cannot be turned into a force of solidarity and an effective means of monitoring the administration of the government.

The Association opines that the development of general election is the right direction for a democratic political system to take rather than the further development of functional constituency elections

as advocated by the

Governor's

constitutional reform proposals. By allowing more voters to take part in this inequitable and undemocratic election system, they will place added

for the future when

difficulties

constituency elections are to be replaced.

functional