TNAG-2730-FCO40-3936-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1993 — Page 7

CONFIDENTIAL

XCX(93)8

20

To ensure impartiality, the Commission will be required to follow statutory criteria in making its recommendations on constituency boundaries (paragraphs 24 - 25 below). The Commission is to publish its provisional recommendations for public consultation and allow for a period of 28 days for representations from the public. The Commission must have regard to these representations when making its recommendations to the Governor (Clause 20).

21

In order to maintain a system of checks and balances between the Commission, the executive and the LegCo, the Commission should submit its report on the recommendations on constituency boundaries to the Governor (Clause 18), who should cause the report to be laid on the table of the LegCo within 30 days (Clause 24). This procedure will ensure that the Commission's recommendations are open to the public. The report will then be considered by the Governor in Council (Clause 22). In view of the complexity of the issues involved, the Governor should be empowered to return the report to the Commission for further study and resubmission (Clause 23). Final decisions on constituency boundaries will be made by the Governor in Council by way of subsidiary legislation, having regard to the recommendations of the Commission (Item 2(e) of Schedule 2). When the subsidiary legislation is put before the LegCo for enactment, the latter would have the opportunity to scrutinize the decisions of the Governor in Council.

22

To provide the Commission with more flexibility in the boundary demarcation exercise, recommendations on the number of elected members in individual District Boards will in future be made by the Commission instead of the Administration, subject to the overall total number not being substantially greater or less than 338 (Item 5(g) of Schedule 2). This total number of 338 is arrived at on the basis of the population criterion that there should be one directly elected District Board seat for every 17 000 people. The Governor should have regard to the recommendations of the Commission when he makes the final decisions on the number of elected members in each District Board (Item 5(h) of Schedule 2). In the case of the Municipal Councils, the number of members will be stipulated in the relevant Ordinances. Elected members will be provided on the basis of 100 000 population per seat. The composition of the LegCo is specified in the Letters Patent.