The Fifth Report

The Fourth Report of the Constitutional Development Task Force
Regional Forum (Hong Kong Island)
(19 March 2005)

Discussion Summaries of Group 1
Group Facilitator: Mr Hui Yung-chung

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• The majority of participants supported an increase in the number of Election Committee members to 1 600.

• A participant was of the view that the key issues were how the Election Committee members were elected and the proportion of each subsector in the Committee, rather than the number of Committee members.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• Many participants proposed to increase the number of subsectors, and include District Council members, members of area committees, and representatives of district organizations such as women associations, owners' corporations, mutual aid committees, etc in the Election Committee.

• Participants hoped that the Election Committee would be representative. To this end, they considered that attention should be paid to the proportion of the District Council members in the Election Committee if their number in the Committee was to be increased.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• Participants held diverse views and there was no clear inclination. However, none of the participants suggested reducing the number of subscribers required.

The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Election Committee

• There were diverse views among the participants on the abolition of corporate voting. The discussion focused on whether company owners and person-in-charge of the organizations, or whether all employees in the sectors should have the right to vote.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• Participants did not have much opinion on the number of seats in the Legislative Council, nor was there any obvious inclination.

• A participant did not object to an increase in the number of seats, but considered that there should not be any increase in the resources required as a result.

The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Legislative Council Functional Constituencies

• There were different views among participants on the abolition of corporate voting. Some were of the opinion that persons-in-charge of organizations should continue to be electors of the relevant sectors, while some considered that employees of the relevant sectors should also have the right to vote.

• A participant proposed including new constituencies for women's organizations, Chinese medicine, Chinese enterprises etc.

Provisions regarding Nationality of the Legislative Council Members

• Participants held two different views. One group agreed to maintaining the existing provision, while another suggested that the number of seats that might be returned by individuals who were not of Chinese nationality should be reduced gradually and eventually eliminated.

Others

• A participant took the view that it was not necessary to hold direct election through geographical constituencies as Hong Kong was a small place. It should be sufficient to make Hong Kong a single constituency.