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SCMP Reporter

In the Legislative Council elections in 1995, the territory was divided into 20 single-seat constituencies for the geographical polls.

 To ensure fairness, the law required the population in each constituency to be roughly the same, about five per cent of the total population.

 Thus Hong Kong Island was given four seats, Kowloon seven and the New Territories the remaining nine.

 For the elections of the first SAR legislative council next year, a system of proportional representation will be adopted.

 The number of geographically elected seats will remain the same but, instead of 20 single-seat constituencies, there are to be five constituencies, each returning three to five legislators.

 The most convenient way to draw the boundary for next year's elections is to form each new constituency by putting together three to five of the 1995 ones.

 Hong Kong Island, with four seats, naturally forms one constituency. Kowloon can be divided into two parts - one with four seats and the other with three.

 The New Territories could consist of a four-seat and a five-seat constituency.

 Everyone who voted in 1995 would then easily know which new constituency he or she belonged to.

 An obvious disadvantage of this scheme is that it gives rise to wide disparities between the sizes of the constituencies.

 The smallest constituency, the one with three seats in Kowloon, would have a population of around 87,000 at most.

 The population in the five-seat constituency in the New Territories would be 1.6 million. One is nearly twice as large as the other.

 It may be argued that, despite the non-uniformity in size, each constituency would still have a number of seats proportional to its population.

 To those standing for election, however, the size of the constituency determines the amount of resources and effort required for their campaign.

 It would hardly be fair to candidates if some constituencies were much larger than others.

 The 'list system' used for the new elections allows candidates to contest in teams, each team consisting of as many candidates as the number of seats in the constituency.

 But a candidate can also work alone, standing as the only member on a one-person list.

 These lone hands would find it more difficult to contest in large constituencies than in smaller ones.

 In the 1995 elections each candidate in a geographical constituency was allowed to spend a maximum of $200,000 on electioneering.

 The amount was the same for everybody, to the advantage of those who stood in constituencies with a smaller number of voters.

But there was no complaint of unfairness, for variations in constituency size were not significant. Most candidates spent nearly all of the allowed amount.

 It would be difficult to fix the ceiling for election expenses in a way fair to every candidate if one constituency was double the size of another.

 A uniform cap for all constituencies would be reasonable, as candidates campaigning in larger constituencies would have to spend a greater sum. On the other hand, neither is it desirable for the law to let some candidates spend more than others.

 A more equitable arrangement would be to divide the seats evenly, so that all constituencies were of uniform size. This means parts of the New Territories would have to be annexed to the Kowloon constituencies.

 This should not cause any problem. The geographical distances between Tseung Kwan O and Kwun Tong, and between Kwai Fong and Mei Foo, are shorter than between Wan Chai and Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island.



Striving for the fairest system of them all