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The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, officiated at the opening of a Basic Law carnival, held at Kowloon Park, this (December 19) afternoon. Following is the transcript of his remarks to the media after the ceremony:
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: As far as I am concerned, I believe that in Hong Kong there are a variety of political parties, both old and new. There are also collections of independent candidates who are ready and willing to stand in the forthcoming rounds of elections to be held in 2011 and 2012. So far as the HKSAR Government is concerned, we believe that the decision we took in June this year to put forth a formula of "one person, two votes", this approach is entirely consistent with the overall interests of Hong Kong. The community has welcomed the further democratisation of the electoral systems for 2012, and we believe that the political parties would have considered all relevant considerations in the round before they took a decision to vote in support of the "one person, two votes" system in June this year.
(Please refer also to the Chinese transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, December 19, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:25
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