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The Fourth Report of the Constitutional Development Task Force
Regional Forum (New Territories West)
(5 March 2005)
Discussion Summaries of Group 6
Group Facilitator: Mr LAM Siu-sau
(Translation)
Method for Selecting the Chief Executive
The Number of Members of the Election Committee
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Participants were of the view that the number of Election Committee members to be increased was not important. The most important issue was that all newly added members should have sufficient representativeness.
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A participant opined that increasing the number of the Election Committee members was a transitional measure. Ultimately, the Chief Executive should be selected by universal suffrage.
The Composition of the Election Committee
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Participants proposed to add all District Council members to the Election Committee. In addition, there should be more representatives from trades and businesses in the Election Committee so that its representativeness would be broader than that of functional constituencies in Legislative Council. However, the scenario of having a small number of people
representing the entire subsector should be avoided.
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A participant proposed to include representatives from ethnic minorities.
The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates
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Participants took the view that the required number of subscribers should be maintained at 100, even if the number of the Election Committee were to be increased. This could encourage more interested persons to run for election.
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Participant suggested setting an upper limit to avoid only one candidate running for election. However, participants did not discuss any specific figures.
Others
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A participant proposed that the Government should promote the Election Committee to the public to make them understand that the Committee comprised representatives from various sectors, that it was broadly represented, and that it was not a "small circle" election.
Method for Forming the Legislative Council
The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council
The Number of Seats Returned by Geographical Constituencies
The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of Legislative Council Functional Constituencies
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In principle, participants agreed that fairness and public participation in functional constituency elections should be enhanced.
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In specific terms, participants proposed to review the existing delineation of functional constituencies to consider merging constituencies of the same nature, such as the industrial and commercial constituencies. Specific criteria and methods should also be drawn up with a view to removing declining industries, such as the textile sector. In addition,
participants proposed to include emerging businesses or professions which were being neglected, such as Chinese medicine practitioners, pre-primary education, etc.
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Participants proposed that, in order to enhance fairness and participation, employees of different businesses should be given the right to vote. Corporate voting, which was considered unfair, should be abolished.
Provisions regarding Nationality of Legislative Council Members
Others
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A participant was of the view that, in moving towards the direction of universal suffrage, functional constituencies should be replaced ultimately by geographical constituencies.
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A participant suggested reducing the size of geographical constituencies for direct election. This was because members returned by the current five large constituencies might not be able to properly take care of issues in their constituencies. Smaller constituencies would help members focus better and enable them to provide more useful advice on local affairs.
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