ENG-1986 — Page 43

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CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

The franchise for Legislative Council elections is prescribed accordingly. For the electoral college, an elector must be a member of the Urban Council, the Regional Council or a district board making up the respective special constituencies and district board constituencies. For functional constituencies, an elector who is an individual must have been registered under the Electoral Provisions Ordinance for the Urban Council, Regional Council and district board elections and be a member of an organisation forming part of the relevant constituency. No person may be registered in more than one functional constituency even if he is eligible. An elector who is not an individual must nominate a person not already an elector in his own right in the same constituency to be its authorised representative to vote at an election. That person may not be the authorised representative of another elector in the same or any other constituency. However, if eligible, a person may be registered to vote both in the electoral college and in the functional constituency to which he belongs apart from voting as an authorised representative. For the year, the number of electors registered in the electoral college and the functional constituencies stands at 436 and 42 428 respectively, as compared to the corresponding potential electorate of 439 and 70 678.

The qualifications for candidature are simple: for an electoral college constituency, any person who is an elector registered under the Electoral Provisions Ordinance (and not necessarily be an elector in any electoral college constituency) and who has been resident in Hong Kong for the preceding 10 or more years, may be nominated if supported by five electors in that constituency. For a functional constituency, any person who is an elector registered under the Electoral Provisions Ordinance, has been resident in Hong Kong for the preceding 10 or more years and has a substantial connection with the relevant functional constituency may be nominated if supported by 10 electors in the constituency concerned.

Voting is by absolute majority, with the use of a repeated ballot system for electoral college constituencies and a preferential voting system for functional constituencies. Elections are conducted every third year after 1985.

Advisory Committees

The network of government boards and committees is a distinctive feature of the system of government in the territory which seeks to obtain, through consultation with interested groups in the community, the best possible advice on which to base decisions. Thus advisory bodies of one kind or another are found in nearly all government departments. In general, advisory bodies may be divided into five categories: statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Endangered Species Advisory Committees); statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the Board of Education); non-statutory bodies which give advice to a head of department (such as the Airport Facilitation Committee); non-statutory bodies which give advice to the government (such as the Transport Advisory Committee); and committees which are executive in nature (such as the Chinese Temples Committee).

Government officials and members of the public are represented on these committees. Well over 4 700 members of the public are appointed to serve on a total of 435 boards and committees, and some serve on more than one of these advisory bodies. These members are appointed on account of their specialist knowledge or expertise, or through their record or interest in contributing to the life of the community. Increasing importance has been attached to the contribution they make to the formulation and execution of government policies and, in order to utilise their potential to the full, a systematic and