District Councils Ordinance (Chapter 547)
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File Ref.: CAB C2/11 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL BRIEF District Councils Ordinance (Chapter 547) DECLARATION OF CONSTITUENCIES (DISTRICT COUNCILS) ORDER 2003 INTRODUCTION At the meeting of the Executive Council on 13 May 2003, the Council ADVISED and the Chief Executive ORDERED that the Declaration of Constituencies (District Councils) Order 2003, at Annex A, should be made under section 6 of the District Councils Ordinance (DC Ordinance). JUSTIFICATIONS The Electoral Affairs Commission Report Statutory Requirements 2. Under section 4(a) of the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance (EAC Ordinance), Cap. 541, one of the functions of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) is to consider or review the boundaries of District Council Constituencies (DCCs) for the purpose of making recommendations as to the delineation of DCCs and the name for each DCC for a DCs ordinary election. 3. The EAC is required under section 18 of the EAC Ordinance to submit a report to the CE on its recommendations for the DCCs not more than 36 months from the preceding DCs ordinary election. As the last DCs ordinary election was held on 28 November 1999, the EAC should have submitted its report and recommendations for the 2003 DCs election to the CE by 27 November 2002. However, as a result of the Administration’s decision to add ten elected seats for the second term DCs, which was effected by the Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous - 2 - Amendments) Ordinance 2002 passed by the Legislative Council (LegCo) on 18 December 2002, the CE extended the period for submission of the EAC Report to 27 May 2003, in accordance with section 18(4) of the EAC Ordinance. 4. In making recommendations on the delineation of DCCs, the EAC is bound by certain provisions under the EAC Ordinance and the DC Ordinance. The combined effect of the relevant provisions of these two Ordinances is as follows – (a) there are to be 400 elected members in the 18 DCs (section 5(1) of the DC Ordinance and section 10 of the Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2002); (b) each constituency is to have one elected member (section 7 of the DC Ordinance); (c) the population in each constituency should be as near the population quota1 as practicable, and where it is not practicable to comply with this requirement, the population in that constituency should not exceed or fall short of the population quota by more than 25% (section 20(1)(c) & (d) of the EAC Ordinance); (d) the EAC may depart from the strict application of (c) above only where it appears that a consideration provided in section 20(3) of the EAC Ordinance, i.e. community identities, the preservation of local ties and physical features such as size, shape, accessibility and development of the relevant area, renders a departure necessary or desirable (section 20(5) of the EAC Ordinance); and (e) the EAC must follow the existing boundaries of Districts specified under the DC Ordinance (section 20(4A) of the EAC Ordinance). 1 Population quota means the total population of Hong Kong divided by the total number of elected members to be returned in the election. - 3 - Relevant extracts from the EAC Ordinance, the DC Ordinance and the Electoral Provisions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2002 are at Annexes B, C and D respectively. Provisional Recommendations of EAC (A) Working Principles (paragraph 2.4 of the Report) 5. Under section 19(1) of the EAC Ordinance, the EAC is required to exhibit the maps showing the delineation of the proposed DCCs for inspection by the public when it has provisionally determined its recommendations. 6. In making its provisional recommendations, a primary consideration of the EAC was to ensure that the population criterion was complied with. Based on the forecast figures provided by an inter- departmental working group chaired by the Planning Department, the population of Hong Kong as at the end of June 2003 will be 6 877 553. With 400 constituencies, the population quota is 17 194. The permissible range of population based on a ±25% deviation is from 12 896 to 21 493. 7. The EAC adopted a number of working principles when arriving at its provisional recommendations, including the following : (a) for those existing DCCs where the population falls within the permissible range of 12 896 to 21 493, their boundaries will not be changed; (b) for those existing DCCs where the population falls outside the permissible range, but the situation was allowed for the 1999 ordinary election and the justifications have remained valid, their boundaries will not be changed; (c) for those existing DCCs other than those in (b) where the population falls outside the permissible range, their boundaries will be adjusted for compliance with the population quota requirement. This may - 4 - necessitate revising the boundaries of the adjoining DCCs. Where there is more than one way to adjust the boundaries of the DCCs concerned, the one which affects the least number of existing DCCs will be adopted, or the one with the least departure from the population quota will be adopted; and (d) factors with political implications will not be taken into consideration. 8. In the course of its work, the EAC invited District Officers to attend meetings to discuss its preliminary findings. District Officers’ views on community identities, local ties and physical features were carefully considered by the EAC before the provisional recommendations were made. (B) Public Consultation (paragraphs 3.1 – 3.8 of the Report) 9. As required by section 19 of the EAC Ordinance, the EAC conducted a public consultation exercise for a period of 30 days from 6 January to 4 February 2003 on its provisional recommendations. During this period, members of the public could send their representations in writing to the EAC. Two forums were also held in January 2003 at which members of the public could attend and express their views to the EAC direct. The DCs of two districts, namely Sham Shui Po and Kwai Tsing, held meetings to discuss the provisional recommendations relating to them. Representatives from the Registration and Electoral Office were present to address queries. 10. In total, the EAC received 262 written representations. The two forums were attended by about 200 people, 72 of whom expressed their views on the provisional recommendations. The original texts of the written representations and the minutes of the meetings of the two DCs are contained in Volume 3 of the EAC Report. Summaries of the written representations, oral representations and representations raised at the meetings of the two DCs are set out by district in Appendix III of Volume 1 of the Report. - 5 - (C) Key Issues Raised During Public Consultation (Paragraph 4.5 of the Report) 11. Among the representations received, there were 90 which supported the EAC’s provisional recommendations. For the others, the majority stressed the importance of maintaining community identities and local ties even though the population deviation in the DCCs concerned might exceed the permissible limits. Some pointed out that the EAC’s proposed delineation would disrupt the community identity and the well- established cohesiveness of residents, greatly affecting the integrity of the community. 12. In considering the representations, the EAC gave due weight to community identities and local ties. Reasonable suggestions to alter the provisional recommendations on the grounds of community, geographical and development considerations were accepted. In some cases, the EAC allowed the population of DCCs to deviate from the population quota beyond the 25% limits to preserve local ties. Final Recommendations of EAC (paragraphs 4.2 – 4.4, and 4.6 – 4.7 of the Report) 13. In drawing up its final recommendations, the EAC adopted the following approach. (a) For representations regarding DCCs which were provisionally determined to remain the same as those of the DCCs in 1999 (“unaltered DCCs”), modifications to their boundaries would be considered only if – (i) they were supported by cogent reasons and would result in substantial and apparent improvement on community, geographical and development considerations; (ii) they would not in turn affect an unacceptable number of unaltered DCCs; - 6 - (iii) all the resulting populations would not depart from the population quota by more than 25%; and (iv) no representation supporting the retention of the provisional recommendations in respect of the same unaltered DCCs had been received. The EAC considered it inappropriate to accept representations on unaltered DCCs solely for the sake of improving population distribution. If the EAC were to accept these representations, many DCCs would have to be re-delineated and included in the final recommendations without the benefit of further public consultation as to their acceptability. (b) For representations regarding new DCCs, all suggestions with sufficient cause on better population distribution or on community considerations would be accepted, except those adopting an approach entirely different from the EAC’s and affecting an unacceptable number of unaltered DCCs. 14. In the end, the EAC adjusted the boundaries of 62 DCCs and changed the names of eight DCCs. A breakdown of these changes by district is at Annex E. It allowed 27 constituencies, listed at Annex F, to exceed or fall short of the population quota by more than 25%. For the majority of these cases, this is due to the need to preserve community identity and local ties. 15. The EAC submitted its final recommendations to the CE on 22 April 2003. The main text of the Report is at Annex G, we will separately provide each LegCo Member with a set of the full report. The Order 16. According to section 21 of the EAC Ordinance, the EAC Report received by the CE shall be considered by the CE in Council as soon as practicable.