Seminars and Discussion Group

Regional Forum on Constitutional Development
(New Territories East)
(28 July 2004)

Group Discussion Summaries
Group 2: Mr LEE Man-ching

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• All participants agreed to increase the number of Election Committee members to enhance its representativeness. A participant proposed to double the size to 1 600.
  
  

• A participant opined that instead of setting a total number first, the composition of the Election Committee should be determined first. The number of members would be increased in accordance with the size of the electorate for each sector.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• A participant proposed to include directly elected District Council members, owners' corporations, chairmen and vice chairmen of rural committees and representatives of residents' groups in the composition of the Election Committee.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• Many participants supported lowering the entry barrier for candidature in the election of Chief Executive. They proposed to reduce the lower limit for the number of subscribers required to 50.
  
  

• A participant was of the view that if the Election Committee were expanded, maintaining the lower limit at 100 subscribers would have in effect lowered the required ratio.

The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Election Committee

• A participant suggested adding subsectors for students and junior civil servants, as well as to expand the existing Sector 3 (labour, social services, religious and other sectors).
  
  

• A participant considered the current size of the electorate of the Election Committee, at 163 500, was much too small. He suggested that the number of electors should be increased to 5 to 10% of the total population.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• All participants agreed that the number of seats in the Legislative Council should be increased to 70, i.e. 5 additional seats each for geographical constituencies and functional constituencies.

The Number of Seats Returned by Geographical Constituencies

• A participant opined that the number of seats to be added for each region should be determined with regard to that region's own development: the number of seats could be increased for Kowloon West, New Territories East and New Territories West. However, there was no need to allocate additional seats to Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East.

The Number of Seats Returned by Functional Constituencies

• A participant suggested increasing the number of functional constituencies to 36, including a split of the Agriculture and Fisheries constituency and increasing the number of seats for District Councils to 4.

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

• A participant suggested adding constituencies for women, students and residents' groups (e.g. owners' corporations).

Other Views

Electoral System

• A participant proposed to change the existing proportional representation system to "single-seat-single-vote" system.
  
  

• A participant raised the point that candidates running for Legislative Council seats in geographical constituencies should be required to live or work in that particular region so that they were familiar with the needs of the region, and could serve their constituents better. Some participants, however, did not agree to setting such requirements.