Seminars

Seminar on Constitutional Development
(11 June 2004)
Group Discussion Summaries
Blue Group: Professor Leung Ping-chung

(Translation)

Method for Selecting the Chief Executive

The Number of Members of the Election Committee

• The majority of participants agreed that the number of Election Committee members should be increased. The existing figure of 800 was the bottom-line, but there were different views on the ceiling. Most participants agreed that considerations should be given to factors such as the actual proportion of the Committee's make-up, social changes, the development of the various sectors, and the needs of Hong Kong.
  
  

• Some participants echoed a proposal made at the last seminar that the number of Election Committee members should be increased to 1 600.
  
  

• Some participants said that the number to be increased was not the most important issue. Other issues, such as which sectors should be increased, how to increase, and the justification for the increase were more important. So was the need to act cautiously.
  
  

• A participant suggested adopting the American system of "electoral college".

The Composition of the Election Committee

• The majority of participants said that the restructuring and adjustment of the sectors in the Election Committee should be made in accordance with the actual situation and changes in Hong Kong. District Councils was one of the very important sectors.
  
  

• However, participants had diverse views about whether District Councils members should automatically be included in the Election Committee.

The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates

• Most participants agreed that the number of subscribers should neither be too large nor too small. Upper and lower limits might be necessary.
  
  

• A participant suggested that candidates for the Chief Executive could be nominated first through a ballot among the Election Committee members, and then elected by 160 000 or 500 000 voters.

Method for Forming the Legislative Council

The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council

• Some participants thought that the number of seats in the Legislative Council should be increased, but some thought that this was not an important issue.
  
  

• Participants accepted the existing ratio (1:1) of seats returned from direct election and functional constituencies respectively.
  
  

• A participant proposed to enhance District Councils' participation in the Legislative Council, for example by increasing 18 additional seats for District Council chairmen plus 18 additional seats for functional constituencies, or 50 additional seats for District Councils plus 50 additional seats for functional constituencies. However, the rationale and justification for these figures were not very clear.

Other Views

Principle of Constitutional Development

• Participants agreed that constitutional development should move towards universal suffrage, and any proposal should aim at achieving this goal ultimately. We had yet to reach the stage of universal suffrage, and a number of issues at various levels had to be addressed. However, some of the measures might be contradictory to the principle of universal suffrage. For instance, increasing the number of functional constituencies would slow down the implementation of universal suffrage.

The Underpinning Facility

• Some participants highlighted the underpinnings necessary for electoral or constitutional reform, with a view to enhancing the knowledge of the general public on political structure and politics. These included education plans and reference to countries with long established democratic systems.

(Please refer to the video recording for the floor speech.)

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