The Fifth Report

The Fourth Report of the Constitutional Development Task Force
Regional Forum (Kowloon)
(23 March 2005)

Discussion Summaries of Group 4
Group Facilitator: Mr LAM Siu-sau

(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 enhance the representativeness of the Chief Executive. The majority of participants supported an increase to 1 600 members.

• A participant pointed out that any change in the number of Election Committee members must be supported by reasons.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• Participants suggested adding new subsectors to the Committee, including women, parents, owners' corporations, area committees, mutual aids committees, etc.

• Participants also proposed to increase the number of District Council Members in the Election Committee. However, the majority of participants did not agree to include all District Council members.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• Participants agreed that if the Election Committee was to be expanded, the number of subscribers required should be increased accordingly. The majority of participants agreed that the number of subscribers required should remain at one-eighth of the total membership of the Election Committee.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• Participants agreed that no matter the number of seats would be increased or decreased, distribution of the seats returned by geographical and functional constituencies should remain balanced and equal.

• Some participants held the view that the number of seats should not be increased to avoid incurring additional government expenses. A participant took the view that while the number of seats could be increased, the expenses must be capped at the current level.

The Number of Seats Returned by Geographical Constituencies

• A participant proposed to add four geographical constituencies seats, to be allocated to Kowloon East, New Territories East, New Territories West, and Hong Kong Island respectively.

The Number of Seats Returned by Functional Constituencies

• A participant proposed to introduce new functional constituencies for Chinese medicine practitioners, Chinese medicine, Chinese enterprises, and small factories.

Provisions regarding Nationality of the Legislative Council Members

• The majority of participants considered that the existing provision should be abolished gradually so that people of foreign nationalities could not become Legislative Council Members. The reason was that Members of foreign nationalities were more prone to act irresponsibly after they left Hong Kong.

• A participant took the view that the existing provision could be retained. He pointed out that for every 130 000 Hong Kong citizens, there was one Legislative Council Members of Chinese nationality. He proposed to adopt the same proportion in determining the number of Legislative Council Members who could hold foreign nationalities.