The Fifth Report

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

Discussion Summaries of Group 4
Group Facilitator: Mr LO Kam-wah

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• Participants agreed to increase the number of Election Committee members to 1600 in a gradual and orderly manner.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• A participant proposed that newly added seats could be returned by election among the 18 districts, i.e. 50 seats for each district, so as to enhance the Committee's representativeness.

• The new subsectors suggested by participants included area committees, owners corporations, kai fong associations, youth and retired people etc.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• All participants agreed to encourage more candidates to run for elections.

• The majority of participants supported maintaining the ration of one-eighth, while a few participants proposed lowering the requirement, e.g. to obtain nomination from 10% of the members in any three sectors.

Others

• A participant considered that whether the Chief Executive had political affiliation was not important. Rather, the Chief Executive should contribute to society and be accepted by the Central Government.

• Another participant held the view that the Chief Executive should not have political affiliation. Otherwise, party politics would arise which would impact on the community and affect the executive-led system.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• The majority of participants suggested increasing the number of seats to 70, i.e. five additional seats to be returned by geographical constituencies and the other five by functional constituencies.

• Some participants, however, were of the view that 60 seats were adequate because the performance of some Legislative Council Members were disappointing.

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

• A participant proposed to review the representativeness of the functional constituencies to ensure that the voice of the public was widely represented.

• Participants held different views on whether to replace corporate voting with individual voting. No consensus was reached.

Provisions regarding Nationality of the Legislative Council Members

• The majority of participants supported maintaining the existing provision which allowed permanent Hong Kong residents with foreign nationality to be Legislative Council Members so as to absorb different views and maintain balance of interests.

Others

• A participant considered that functional constituencies was conducive to balancing different interests.