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Wrong way to find a seat

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In the next week or so, Tung Chee-hwa and his top advisers will have to take a final decision on the electoral blueprint for the first legislature.

A difficult decision they face is not only longer how the 20 directly elected seats should be chosen - but whether one out of the 30 functional constituency seats should be set aside for local Chinese-funded enterprises.

Signs of a showdown have emerged in the past few days after the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, the fraternity body of mainland-funded firms, stepped up its campaign for a seat.

Leading left-wing papers with close contacts with Xinhua have run, over half a page, the text of a speech given by an office-bearer of the association at an economic conference.

This outlined the positive contribution and role of mainland-funded companies in the territory's economic prosperity.

Shortly after it was published, an association official made an open appeal in a newspaper interview for Mr Tung and his Executive Council to enfranchise the body in the next legislature polls in accordance with the vote of preference by Preparatory Committee members.

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