THE committee which will choose Hong Kong's first post-1997 chief executive may also select the proposed provisional legislature, the top Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong affairs said yesterday.
Lu Ping, Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said members of the caretaker legislative council would be chosen no later than early 1997.
He made the comments in a meeting with the Liberal Party, whose leader, Allen Lee Peng-fei, quoted Mr Lu as saying the Chinese Government had not finalised the membership of the selection committee.
The Basic Law says the committee should have 400 members drawn from four sectors: business; professionals; grass-roots; and former political figures, but gives no further details.
Mr Lee said he had told Mr Lu the committee should have a wide representation and should be chosen through elections.
Another Liberal Party legislator, Ronald Arculli, said the party had suggested the provisional legislature's term of office should be short.
He quoted Mr Lu as saying one of the main reasons for a caretaker legislature was to pass electoral laws, because the councils returned in the 1994 and 1995 elections under Governor Chris Patten's political reform blueprint would be disbanded on July 1, 1997. It would take time to hold new elections for the three-tiered councils, Mr Lu had said.