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4. Election and Voting Systems: Perspectives on Democratic Governance
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
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4 ElectionandVotingSystems: PerspectivesonDemocraticGovernanceinHongKong' C.Ra jKuma r "Inearliertimes, there were lengthy discussions on whether one country oranotherwas yet'fit fordemocracy'.That changedonly recently,with the recognitionthat thequestionwas itselfwrong-headed: a countrydoes not haveto be judgedfit for democracy, rather it has to become fit through democracy.This istrulya momentouschange." -NobelLaureate Professor Amartya Sen 1 Thispape raddresse sth eissu eofelectionsan dvotingsystem sa sakey componento fth edebat eo ngenera lpolitica lrefor mi nth eHon gKon g SpecialAdministrativeRegio n(HKSAR).Thecentralthemeofthepaperis theimportanc eo fdemocraticgovernanc eforthedevelopmento faviable andeffectiv evotin gsyste mi nHon gKong ,bearin gi nmin dit sparticula r constitutionalan dpolitica lrealities . Thepape rattempt st od oth efollowing :first ,introduc eth etopi co f electionsandvotingsystemsinHongKongbyprovidingsomebackgroun d information;second,analysevariouselectoralsystemsandconsiderthei r advantages,disadvantage san dsuitabilit yfo ra particula rsociety ;third , providea naccoun to fHon gKong' spas telection san dvotin gsystems ; fourth,provid ea critica lanalysi so fHon gKong' selection san dvotin g systemsandconsidertheneedforalternatives;fifth,exploretheargument *Th eautho rthank sProfessor sRichar dCullen .MichaelDavis ,LinFeng ,DavidSandbor gan dD.K . Srivastavafo rtheirvaluablecomment san dsuggestion st oanearlierdraf tofthischapter . 1 Se eUnite dNation sDevelopmen tProgramm e(UNDP )(2002) ,HumanDevelopment Report 2002: DeepeningDemocracy in aFragmentedWorld, Ne wYork,p.63. 44Buildin gDemocrac y ^ thatdemocracypromotestransparencyi ngovernanceandaccountability ofth egovernment ;an dsixth ,emphasiseth enee dfora deepeningo f democracyinHongKongfromadevelopmentalperspectivewithaviewto allayingvariou sfear sfro mcertai nsection so fpopulac etha tgreate r democracyresultsinpoorgovernance. Thepape rconclude stha tth etas ko freformin gth eelectora lproces s needstobeapproachedwiththeaimofcreatinganelectionandvoting systemthatmaintainsthesocial,economicandpoliticalstabilityofHong Kong.Atthesametime,suchasystemmustalsoprotecttheruleoflaw andhuma nright san dshoul dhel pi ntheproces so fth edeepenin go f democracy. 1.IntroductionandBackground HongKong' scurren telectora lsyste mcanno tb esai dt ob efull y democratic,asevidentinthefactthattheChiefExecutiveandthemajority ofseat si nth elegislatur ear eno telecte do nth ebasi so funiversa l suffrage.2 Th elega lan dconstitutiona lcommitmen tt oestablishin ga n electoralsystembasedonuniversalsuffragei ntheHKSARissetoutin boththeSino-BritishJointDeclarationandtheHongKongBasicLaw.3 The BasicLawstatesthatsuchasystemmaybeembracedafter2007.Itis importanttoworktowardsrealisingthisconstitutionalgoal.Untilsuchtime asthisshallbeachieved,theBasicLawprovidesthatHongKong'sChief Executiveistobechosenbyan800-memberElectionCommittee,which isitsel fselecte dlargel yb yfunctiona lsectors .I nth e200 4legislativ e elections,onl yhal fofthe6 0seatsi nHon gKong' sLegislativ eCounci l (LegCo)willbedirectlyelectedwhiletheremainingseatswillbeselected bywhatareknownasfunctionalconstituencies.4 Thiselectionsystemis narrowandlop-sidedanddoesnotfullyreflectHongKong'sdemographic profile.5 Moreover ,i t...