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Seminar on Constitutional Development
(24 May 2004)
Group Discussion Summaries
White Group: Professor Edward Chen
(Translation)
Method for Selecting the Chief Executive
The Number of Members of the Election Committee
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On the number of members of the Election Committee, some participants suggested an increase from 800 to 1,400, given that the fourth sector had no room for expansion other than to increase the number of District Council members. The membership of the other sectors could be doubled to make up a total of 1,400. However, some thought that 200 members
should be added to each sector to make up a total of 1,600.
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One suggestion was to increase the size of the existing four sectors to 1,500 members. In addition, by modeling on the jury system, 500 members of the public could be selected randomly to represent the general public, thus forming a 2,000-member Election Committee. This would allow both the elite and the non-elite to take part in the selection for the
Chief Executive.
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Another idea put forward was that the number of members was not important, 1,600 would probably be enough. The crux of the matter was how to elect the 1,600 members.
The Number of Members Required for Nominating Candidates
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On nomination, many participants wished to see more candidates. As each member of the Election Committee could only nominate one candidate, a ceiling could be imposed on the required number of subscribers for each candidate. There were suggestions to set the ceiling at 5%, some others suggested 100 members, whilst still some others proposed a ceiling of
200.
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Some participants suggested that a candidate must obtain a certain number of subscribers from each sector of the Election Committee. That is to say, he must have the support of all the sectors before he could be properly nominated.
The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of the Election Committee
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A participant suggested to elect 1,600 members from among 500,000 people. This was considered a suitable way to further develop Hong Kong's democratic system towards 2012 or beyond.
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Some participants considered that even if the number of Election Committee were 1,600, all of them should be elected by universal suffrage. Whether members of the Election Committee could be selected by universal suffrage in the light of the recent decision by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) might need further
deliberations, because some people thought that it was not ruled out by the NPCSC decision.
Method for Forming the Legislative Council
The Number of Seats in the Legislative Council
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There were views that the number of Legislative Council Members should not be increased because it would involve an increase in the number of functional constituencies and such an increase, once introduced, would be very difficult to reverse.
The Number of Seats Returned by Functional Constituencies
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Some participants said that the functional constituencies were very important. Even if there were universal suffrage in future, functional constituencies would still be needed. It was also pointed out that this would not go against the Basic Law because representatives from functional constituencies could be elected by universal suffrage.
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There were views that the number of functional constituency seats should be increased, for two reasons. First, there was a need for more Members to deal with the heavy workload of the Legislative Council. Second, there had been changes in the social structure over the years. There should be a re-assessment of the functional constituencies.
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Another view was that functional constituencies represented "free lunches". The sooner they were eliminated, the better.
The Delineation and Size of the Electorate of Functional Constituencies
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All the participants considered that there could be a comprehensive review of the functional constituencies in 2007/08. Some objective yardsticks should be adopted to determine whether certain functional constituencies should be retained. Since the economic structure had changed, flexible treatment was required.
Other Views
Universal Suffrage
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A participant said that although there would be no universal suffrage in 2007/08, there might be full universal suffrage (or universal suffrage for most seats) in 2012 because the Basic Law had provided universal suffrage as the ultimate aim. If this was the case, we should take a big step forward in 2007/08. Otherwise, future progress would be very
slow and there would also be a convergence problem.
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There was another suggestion that stability was of utmost importance. We should take a cautious, step by step approach in order to maintain stability and prosperity.
Timetable
(Please refer to the video recording for the floor speech.)
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