Hong Kong needs a comprehensive registration system for political parties and increased public funding for party development to boost transparency, a policy think-tank proposed yesterday.
In what it described as the first comprehensive study of the development of political parties in Hong Kong, Civic Exchange also said there was no need to introduce a political party ordinance as the existing regulatory framework was sufficient.
Political parties are now either registered as companies under the Company Ordinance or as societies under the Society Ordinance. Critics have expressed concern over their lack of legal status as political groups and have called for formal recognition through legislation.
But Richard Cullen, a professor at Australia's Monash University who is conducting research for Civic Exchange, said political parties could develop healthily in Hong Kong if the present system was modified.
'Hong Kong has a lot of good election laws and we will be better off working with what we have rather than encountering uncertainties,' he said.
His report, which compared Hong Kong's system with Australia's, recommended the introduction of a voluntary registration system for political parties.