ENG-2001 — Page 50

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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preferences for more than one candidate. A candidate who obtains an absolute. majority of the votes will be elected. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, the candidate with the least number of votes will be eliminated and that candidate's votes will be transferred to other candidates in accordance with the preferences marked on the ballot paper. The process will continue until one candidate obtains an absolute majority over other remaining candidates.

(c) Election Committee

The qualifications for candidature in the Legislative Council Election Committee election are the same as those for geographical constituency elections. The Election Committee is composed of members who are HKSAR permanent residents from four. sectors: (1) industrial, commercial and financial; (2) the professions; (3) labour, social services and religious; and (4) members of the Legislative Council, Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress, representatives of Hong Kong members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and representatives of district-based organisations. Each of these four sectors returns 200 members. Each sector is further divided into subsectors each returning a specified number of representatives to the Election Committee by election. Members of the Legislative Council and Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress are ex officio members of the Election Committee, and the religious subsector returns its representatives to the Election Committee by nomination from designated religious bodies.

The method for returning six members to the second term of the Legislative Council by the Election Committee was the block vote system each member of the Election Committee was required to cast six votes and the result was determined by a simple majority.

Electoral System for the Chief Executive

Under the Basic Law, the Chief Executive is selected locally and appointed by the Central People's Government. Annex I to the Basic Law lays down the basic framework as to how the Chief Executive shall be selected through local election. It, inter alia, provides that the Chief Executive shall be elected by a broadly representative Election Committee through secret ballot on a one-person-one-vote basis.

In July 2001, the Legislative Council passed the Chief Executive Election Bill into law. This piece of legislation provides the domestic legal basis for holding the Chief Executive election in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in accordance with the basic framework of the Basic Law. Among other things, it stipulates that the Chief Executive election shall be held on the first Sunday 95 days before the office of the incumbent Chief Executive becomes vacant. This gives March 24, 2002 as the polling date for the second term Chief Executive election.

In accordance with the Basic Law, the Election Committee responsible for electing the second term Chief Executive in 2002 is one and the same as the Election Committee that returned six Members to the second term Legislative Council in 2000. (For the composition of the Election Committee, see the relevant section under Electoral System for the Legislative Council).