LC: Speech by SCMA in moving the Second Reading of the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) Bill 2010

Following is the speech (English translation) by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, in moving the Second Reading of the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) Bill 2010 in the Legislative Council meeting today (December 15):

President,

I move the Second Reading of the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) Bill 2010 (the Bill).

In August this year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved and recorded respectively the amendments to the electoral methods for selecting the Chief Executive (CE) and for forming the Legislative Council (LegCo). Since then, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been working on the local legislation for the two electoral methods. After preparation for a few months, I now move the Second Reading of the Bill to amend the electoral method for selecting the CE so as to implement the Election Committee (EC) subsector elections in 2011 and the CE election in 2012. Following this item, I will then move the Second Reading of the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2010 to implement the LegCo election in 2012.

Method for selecting the CE

Regarding the method for selecting the CE in 2012, in accordance with the amendments to Annex I to the Basic Law, the EC would be expanded under the principle of balanced participation to provide more opportunities for different sectors of the community to participate in the next election. The number of EC members will be increased from 800 to 1,200 with an increase of 100 members for each of the four sectors. The major proposals of the Administration under the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) Bill 2010 include:

(i) no new subsector will be added in the first, second and third sectors of the EC. The number of seats allocated to the existing 32 subsectors in these three sectors will be increased generally by proportion according to the existing distribution of seats;

(ii) of the 100 new seats for the fourth sector of the EC, 75 seats will be allocated to the District Councils (DCs) subsectors, 10 to the members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), 10 to the members of LegCo and 5 to Heung Yee Kuk (HYK);

(iii) the DCs subsectors will have 117 seats. The existing arrangement of grouping the seats into two subsectors (one for Hong Kong and Kowloon and the other for the New Territories) and the current "bloc vote system" will be maintained. Only elected DC members can register as voters, nominate candidates and be nominated as candidates in the DCs subsectors;

(iv) when the new term of the EC commences, 10 "Special Member" seats will be created to make up temporarily in February 2012 the difference of 10 seats until the number of LegCo seats increases from 60 to 70 in October 2012. We propose to allocate 4 seats of "Special Member" to members of the CPPCC, 2 to HYK, 2 to Hong Kong and Kowloon DCs and 2 to New Territories DCs; and

(v) to tie in with the development of the registration system of the Chinese medicine practitioners (CMPs), we propose that Registered CMPs should be allowed to be eligible for registration as voters in the Chinese Medicine subsector. To avoid disenfranchising eligible members of the ten specified bodies from registering as voters in the Chinese Medicine subsector, we propose that eligible members of the ten bodies will continue to be eligible for voting in this subsector.

President, the above proposals will enhance participation in the EC election from different sectors of the community. This will also pave the way for the universal suffrage for the CE in 2017. I hope Members will support the Bill. After this item, I will then move the Second Reading of the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2010.

Thank you, President.

Ends/Wednesday, December 15, 2010