Example Of Essay On Hong Kong Basic Law-Functional Constituencies

The Hong Kong Legislative Council has four main types of powers: legislative powers, financial powers, monitoring the work of the executive, and impeachment. Legislative powers are conferred in Article 73 (1) which gives the legislative council the power to enact, amend and repeal laws, while financial powers are conferred in Article 73 (2) which gives the council the power to examine and approve budgets; this function is strengthened by Article 73 (3) which gives the legislative council the power to approve taxation and public expenditure. The powers to monitor the work of the executive are drawn from Article 73 (4) - (6) and (10). Article 73(4) empowers the legislative council to receive and debate policy addresses of the chief executive, article 73 (5) gives the council the power to raise questions on the work of the executive, and article 73 (6) empowers the council to debate issues of public interest. Additionally, Article 73 (10) gives the legislative council the power to summon government officials to testify or to give evidence. Lastly, the legislative council has the power to impeach, and this is dawn from Article 73 (9) which gives the legislative council the power to impeach the chief executive after a serious breach of the law or after dereliction of duty.
Despite all these powers, private members bills face challenges. Article 74, for example, requires private members to have a written consent from the Chief Executive before bills touching on government policy are introduced into the legislative assembly. Therefore, the Chief Executive may not provide consent if he deems the bill inappropriate. Again, even if the private member succeeds to have a written consent from the Chief Executive, the bill has to be sent to another committee of 6-20 members, and this often results to major amendments before the bill is passed by Legco. Annex 2 also makes it difficult for private members to propose amendments; under the spilt voting system, proposed in Annex 2, amendments proposed by legislators require the support of more than half of the popularly elected legislators, and more than half of the functional constituency legislators. This makes it difficult for private members to propose and amend bills; they can only refuse to pass them.
The procedure for voting on bills and motions in the legislative assembly is spelt out in Annex II. Bills which are introduced by the government require at least a simple majority vote of the members of the Legislative Council present, while the passage of motions, bills or amendments to the government bills introduced by individual members of the legislative council requires a simple majority vote of each of the two groups of members present: members returned by functional constituencies and those returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections and by the Election Committee.
A unique feature of the Hong Kong legislative council is the functional constituencies. In the Hong Kong political system, functional constituencies refer to professional or special interest groups which are involved in the electoral process. The professional constituencies are composed of three types: corporate voting, individual voting and super functional constituencies. Corporate voting constituencies are composed of business bodies/companies and they elect most of the functional constituencies in specific sectors of the economy. Individual voting constituencies, on the other hand, are composed of lawyers, teachers, as well as engineers, and they elect a few functional constituencies from specific professions. Lastly, super functional constituencies encompass a wide range of groups, and they attract a higher number of voters than the other functional constituencies. The super functional constituencies retain the characteristics of the functional constituencies, but eligibility to vote in this category is expanded to include groups which had previously been denied the right to vote.