Talk:Government of Hong Kong/temp
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The Chief Executive is the head of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and the Government, the executive branch. The legislative branch is the unicameral Legislative Council. The judicial branch consists of a serie of courts, of which the court of final adjudication is the Court of Final Appeal.
[edit] Executive branch
- Main article: Hong Kong Government
Donald Tsang was formally sworn in and installed into the office of Chief Executive on June 24, having been elected 16 June and appointed by the Central People's Government on 21 June.
Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong's first Chief Executive, assumed office formally on July 1, 1997, following his election by the 400-member Election Committee which was in turn generated by the Preparatory Committee of the HKSAR. The process had been so designed such that Chief Executive candidates must be acceptable to the PRC Government. Tung was declared re-elected uncontested to his second term in 2002 by the judiciary, as he was the only legally nominated candidate, and the Election Committee (which had newly been expanded to 800 members) did not have to go into session. The mechanism of electing the Chief Executive in the future is currently under consultation by the Government. Any Basic Law amendment bill would first have to pass on a two-thirds vote by LegCo, and gain the approval of the sitting Chief Executive, and the National People's Congress, to become an electoral law, due to the requirements laid out in Section 7 of Annex I to the Basic Law.
In 2002, Tung has changed the system of Government such that the posts of top officials are no longer civil servant posts. Instead, such posts are to be held by political appointees, and supported by career civil servants. The new system is dubbed the "accountability system" of principal officials. Under the new system, principal officials are chosen by the Chief Executive and would need to shoulder political responsibilities for their policies and decisions. They can now be more focused on political efforts such as bargaining with Legislative Council members. The system was also supposed to strengthen Tung's hold on the running of the government.
Tung announced resignation on March 10, 2005, this being approved by the Central Government two days later. Donald Tsang, as Chief Secretary, assumed duty as Acting Chief Executive. Tsang resigned on May 25, 2005 to contest in the by-election. The Finaincial Secretary assumed duty as Acting Chief Executive, whereas Michael Suen served as Acting Chief Secretary.
Donald Tsang was the only candidate to obtain the required nominations from 100 members of the Election Committee for candidacy, and was, like Tung, declared elected immediately following the close of nominations, and five days later the Central People's Government endorsed his election. He went to Beijing to be formally installed and sworn in.
Overall, the Civil Service still maintains its quality and neutrality nowadays, operating without discernible direction from Beijing.
[edit] Legislative branch
- Main article: Legislative Council
The Legislative Council (often abbreviated LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. The third term of the Legislative Council (2004-2008) has 60 seats, 30 having been returned from the twenty-eight functional constituencies (indirect election through the business and economic sectors) and 30 from geographical constituencies (electoral districts) by universal suffrage. The composition of LegCo's second and third terms was specified by the Basic Law (specifically Ann. 2, Sect. 1). Starting with the Second Legislative Council, members have served four-year terms. The First Legislative Council was in office only two years because of Article 69 of the Basic Law.
The geographical constituencies are elected based on proportional representation system with seats allocated according to the largest remainder method with Hare quotas. The functional constituencies are returned using two systems: 4 special functional constituencies (Heung Yee Kuk, Agricultural and Fisheries, Insurance, and Transport) elect their representatives using the preferential elimination system, one (Labour) applies Block vote, while the other 23 ordinary functional constituencies use the first past the post system.
Under the initial design, the last Legislative Council of Hong Kong under British rule was to be elected according to the Basic Law and would have become the first Legislative Council of the HKSAR. Christopher Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, had extended the electorate of functional constituencies to cover virtually all employees in Hong Kong, and the 1995 Council was therefore elected by virtual universal suffrage. The PRC government strongly criticized such an arrangement as breaching diplomatic agreements between China and the UK, and had set up a Provisional Legislative Council appointed prior to the handover to take over the role of legislature on 1 July 1997.
The first Legislative Council elections after the handover proceeded May 24, 1998, the second on September 10, 2000, and the third on September 12, 2004. Thirty seats each are returned from geographical constituencies and functional constituencies (Ann. 2, Sect. 1, Basic Law). The method of selecting legislative council seats from 2008 onwards has become a subject of intense debate in the government recently.
The elections were praised by pro-Government camp as free, open, and widely contested, but were criticized by the pro-democracy camp as unfair and not democratic enough, as some can cast more than one vote (in both geographical and functional constituencies). In all of these elections, the indirect election method spelled out by Annex II of the Basic Law caused the pro-Beijing bloc to win an overall majority of the seats, including a majority of indirectly elected positions while pro-democracy and the independents took most of the directly elected seats. For instance, the 2004 election saw the pro-Beijing camp take 23 of the 30 functional constituency seats and the democratic camp take 18 of 30 directly-elected seats, with the pro-China bloc taking the overall majority in LegCo 35 seats to 25.
According to the Article 68 and Annex II of the Basic Law, the passage of bills and motions introduced by the government requires the approval of a simple majority of Legislative Council members present (the quorum set at one half of the members), while bills and motions introduced by Legislative Council members require simple majority votes of each of the two groups of members: those returned by functional constituencies, and those returned by geographical constituencies. As a result, a bill from the government is much easier to pass than a bill from members. This arrangement reflects the "executive-led" philosophy underlying the Basic Law, but was considered by some as weakening the role of the legislature in overseeing the government.
[edit] Judicial branch
- Main article: Judiciary
The supreme judicial body is the Court of Final Appeal, which is given final adjudication in all cases by virtue of Article 82 of the Basic Law.
