Seminars and Discussion Group

Regional Forum on Constitutional Development
(Kowloon)
(19 July 2004)

Group Discussion Summaries
Group 3 : Mr Wong Luen-kin

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• Many participants supported an expansion of the Election Committee membership to enhance the legitimacy of the Election Committee whilst according with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The extent of increase proposed ranged from 25% to 400%.

The Composition of the Election Committee

• Many participants supported expanding the existing sectors and increasing the number of sub-sectors.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• All participants would like to see more than one candidate contesting in a Chief Executive election. A participant thus proposed that the number of subscribers required for nomination be reduced to 5% or 10% of the total number of Election Committee members.

The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Election Committee

• All participants agreed that the electorate of the Election Committee should be expanded to enhance representativeness.

• Some participants proposed to increase the number of representatives for the social services subsector and the commerce and industry subsector.

Others

• Most participants supported making changes to the method for the selection of the Chief Executive in a gradual and orderly manner.

• There was a view that the candidates for the post of the Chief Executive should be acceptable to the Central Authorities, but that this should not mean the Central Authorities should designate who the Chief Executive should be.

• Many participants considered that there should be a progressive approach towards universal suffrage, but some others would like to see the announcement of a timetable for implementation of universal suffrage as soon as possible.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• Some participants considered that with 60 seats at present, one Legislative Council Members represented about 100 000 residents. This was an appropriate size. But there was also support to increase the number of seats by 10 or 20.

The Number of Seats Returned by Geographical Constituencies

• A participant supported an increase of 10 or 20 seats and a corresponding increase in the number of seats returned by functional constituencies, in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress.

The Number of Seats Returned by Functional Constituencies

• A participant supported an increase of 10 or 20 seats and a corresponding increase in the number of seats returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections, in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress.

• A participant remarked that functional constituencies should be retained because they represented the views of certain quarters in the community.

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

• There was some support for replacing corporate voting with individual voting by those who work in the relevant sectors on the ground that this would expand the electorate. However, careful consideration would be required in reviewing who would be eligible to vote.

Provisions regarding Nationality of Legislative Council Members

• Most participants considered the current requirement appropriate. However, a participant considered that Legislative Council Members were meant to serve Hong Kong which was a city of China. For that reason, all Legislative Council Members should be of Chinese nationality.

Other Views

Electoral System

• It was proposed that the Government should review the existing voting methods and consider an open list proportional representation system. Under such a system, the order of the candidate on the lists would be determined by voters. The candidate obtaining the highest number of votes would be elected first.

• There was another suggestion to use advance technology to facilitate voting.