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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Assuming that all the steps I have outlined are to be taken by the Registration Officer, no amendment to the legislation, short of postponement of the Election, could have any practical effect on the position.

I am assured by the Commissioner of Registration that even if the legislation proposed in this motion were brought into effect immediately, it would be impossible to incorporate the Committee's recommendations in the Final Register for the March 1965 Election.

I can assure Members that the recommendations in the Interim Report of the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee have received careful and sympathetic consideration by Government. While the Committee's proposals for the widening of the franchise seem to be reasonable, Government has reservations regarding the proposed extension of automatic registration. A potential voter, generally speaking, has a right to decide for himself whether to register, just as he has a right to vote or to withhold his vote. He may not wish to be approached by canvassers. Furthermore, it is considered wrong in principle for Government to expend public funds in this manner, simply to save individuals a little trouble in registering as voters, particularly when errors in the register are likely to multiply if automatic registration is extended. There is also the consideration that while further automatic registration would result in an increase in the electorate, it is not certain that it would also result in any great increase in the total poll.

Government agrees, however, that the present system of registration merits re-examination. It is, in addition, sympathetic to the proposal that some increase in the Urban Council electorate is now desirable. Accordingly, I am authorized to say that it is proposed to appoint a Working Party to examine the questions of extending the franchise and of simplifying the procedure for registration by members of the electorate and to make appropriate recommendations to Government on these subjects. It is also the intention to invite this Council to provide a number of representatives from among the Unofficial Members to serve on the Working Party.

On 26th March of this year, Sir Robert BLACK announced in the Legislative Council that the Secretary of State had intimated his approval of a proposal to increase in due course the unofficial membership of the Urban Council by four, namely, two elected and two nominated members. I pause at this point to express my admiration for Mr. BERNACCHI's forecast of what I am about to say (Laughter). I take this opportunity of informing Members that Government proposes that these four new seats on the Council should be filled with effect from 1st April, 1965. As regards the two additional elected members, it is intended that the two seats should be offered for election in March 1965, one for a period of four years and one for a period of two years. As elections are due to be held next March for four of the

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seats at present held by elected members, this means that thereafter elections will be held every two years for five seats which will be held by the occupiers for four years.

In the light of my observations on the Report of the Select Committee, I regret that I cannot support the motion before the Council and I propose accordingly to vote against it.

MR. SALES:- Mr. Chairman, if no other Member wishes to exercise the right to speak, may I do so now as the seconder of the motion? Mr. BERNACCHI has pointed out that the Interim Report was the result of much time and work spent and given by the Select Committee concerned. This Interim Report was put forward with the express purpose that it would be implemented for the 1965 Election. There were differences of opinion on other matters and they were held back, in consequence, for further study. For example, I had, and still do have, strong reservations about giving the vote lock, stock and barrel to the Civil Service. As it is, I find that this Urban Council sometimes meets with difficulty in reminding the Urban Services Department about paragraph 55 of the Urban Council Ordinance (Laughter) and I did not wish, and still do not wish, that these difficulties should be greatly increased in consequence of Civil Servants exercising the vote en masse. But the principle is clear, Mr. Chairman, that in keeping with progressive thinking here, as elsewhere, there must be an enlargement of the electorate, provided it is in the public interest, so as to increase the number of people given the vote. Whether it is possible for the report to be implemented in good time for the March 1965 Election is another matter altogether; but the principle is clear and we cannot shirk from accepting it. I would like to see these recommendations being put into effect because I would like every candidate, who offers himself for election in March, to know then, that he was given the chance of being elected, if he were so elected, by a greatly increased number of people and should he be elected and provided always that people want to vote, then his mandate would be a far stronger one in this Council. For that reason and on the principle of the matter alone, Mr. Chairman, and as a member of that Select Committee, I certainly support this motion.

MR. BERNACCHI :- Mr. Chairman, your review of the present date lines and dead-lines, of course, has this error, that you ignore the fact that it could easily be altered by legislation. The present date lines could be amended. The Provisional Register is not the Final Register and I disagree with you when you say that no further registration is possible. In fact, further registration between October 1st and October 14th has been the rule rather than the exception and the Final Register contains many more names than is contained in the Provisional Register. I say that your prepared speech, Mr. Chairman, is Government's excuse

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(Laughter). I do not think that the Government is really serious about implementing the recommendations of the Select Committee. I think that the proposal to set up a Working Party is just a delaying tactic. I hope that the Government will think again and take more positive action.