HONG KONG, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui announced on Wednesday the Fifth Report of the Constitutional Development Task Force at the Legislative Council (LegCo).

    The report contains a package of proposals on methods for selecting the Chief Executive in 2007 and for forming the Legislative Council in 2008.

    On the method for selecting the Chief Executive in 2007, the Task Force suggested to increase the number of members of the Election Committee for selecting the Chief Executive from the present 800 to 1,600.

    Hui explained that the number of Election Committee members in the First, Second and Third Sectors to be increased from 200 to 300 respectively and the number of Election Committee members in the Fourth Sector to be increased from 200 to 700, mainly by including all (appointed, exofficio and elected members) District Council members.

    The Task Force suggested that the threshold for nominating candidates to be maintained at the ratio of one-eighth of total membership.

    On the method for forming LegCo in 2008, the Task Force suggested that the number of LegCo seats to be increased from 60 to 70. The number of seats returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections and that returned by functional constituencies will respectively be increased to 35.

    The Chief Secretary for Administration said, to ensure that the proposed package is firmly grounded on public views, the Task Force has published four reports since its establishment in January 2004, to collect widely and openly and in several stages views from different sectors of the community.

    He stressed that "the work of the Task Force can be said to be highly transparent." Enditem