Seminars and Discussion Group

Constitutional Development: Focus Group for Young People
(11 August 2004)

Group Discussion Summaries
Yellow Group: Professor Ngai Ngan-pun

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• Participants were inclined to support expanding the Election Committee.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• A participant suggested having an additional sector for student, youth, elderly and women.
  
  

• A participant suggested that instead of having 200 Election Committee members in each sector, the number should be proportional to the size of their respective electorate. This could enhance the representativeness of the Election Committee.
  
  

• A participant proposed that the electorate could be divided by districts or age groups so as to enhance the representativeness of the Election Committee.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• A participant suggested to reduce the number of subscribers required so that more candidates can be put up.
  
  

• A participant proposed setting a ceiling on the number of subscribers required for nominating a candidate. This could avoid concentrating all the support on one or two candidates and no more candidates could be nominated.

The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Election Committee

• Participants were inclined to look forward to having "one person one vote" in the election process. This would enhance participation with a view to achieving the ultimate goal of universal suffrage.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• There were basically two views on whether or not the number of seats in the Legislative Council should remain unchanged. Some participants were of the opinion that, according to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress's decision, an increase in the number of directly elected seats would lead to a corresponding increase in the number of seats returned by functional constituencies, and such increase would be contradictory to the principle of universal suffrage. Hence, the number of seats in the Legislative Council should remain unchanged.
  
  

• Other participants opined that the number of seats could be increased so as to enhance the representativeness of the Legislative Council.

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

• Participants supported replacing corporate voting by individual voting.
  
  

• A participant pointed out that it was unfair for some people to have two votes under the present system. He proposed that if there must be "one person, two votes", then based on the principle of fairness, consideration should be given to letting every voter have two votes.
  
  

• Participants opined that as the society had evolved, some of the constituencies needed to be re-organized, combined or split. They suggested reviewing the composition of the constituencies in accordance with their nature and the current situation.
  
  

• A participant queried why the commercial functional constituency was split into two subsectors. He considered that the commercial sector had too many seats in the Legislative Council.

Provisions regarding Nationality of Legislative Council Members

• The majority of participants opined that people with foreign nationality or having right of abode abroad should not serve as Legislative Council Members. Other participants had a different view and considered the existing provision acceptable.

Others

• A participant proposed that, in response to the Third Report regarding the observation that Hong Kong is not ready for universal suffrage because of a lack of political talents, the government should allow more people with political affiliations to participate in the consultation network so that these people could have more political participation and training.
  
  

• A participant suggested making reference to the practices of foreign countries, where statutory councils like youth council or children council be set up. This would allow more teenagers to participate in politics and we could train more political talents.
  
  

• A participant commented that the age restriction for nomination as a candidate should be relaxed; or that the age limitation for being a registered voter and nominated as a candidate in an election should be standardized.
  
  

• A participant opined that political parties should be allowed to conduct publicity as these could be treated as part of the election education.