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Mario Scelba

Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 33rd prime minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. A founder of Christian Democracy (DC), Scelba was one of the longest-serving Minister of the Interior in the history of the republic, having served at the Viminale Palace in three distinct terms from 1947 to 1962.

A fervent pro-Europeanist, Scelba was President of the European Parliament from March 1969 to March 1971. Known for his law and order policies, he was a key figure in Italy's post-war reconstruction, thanks to his drastic reorganization of the Italian police, which came out heavily disorganised from the war.

Early life
Scelba was born in Caltagirone, Sicily, in 1901. His father Gaetano Scelba was a poor sharecropper on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo, while his mother Maria Gambino was a housewife. The couple had five children, one of whom died during his young age. Scelba grew up in an observant Catholic family. At only 12 years old, he was forced to leave school and to help his family's finances. In 1914, Don Sturzo took steps to guarantee an education to Scelba, who began attending the first class of the lower gymnasium in Caltagirone. The outbreak of the World War I forced the institute to suspend lessons and Scelba recovered the lost years by studying as a privatist and achieving the classical diploma in 1920. He then studied law and graduated at the Sapienza University of Rome in 1924, with a thesis on regional decentralization.

During the university, he was selected by Sturzo as his private assistant and secretary. Since 1919, Sturzo was in fact the leader of a Christian-democratic party, the Italian People's Party (PPI), and was one of the most important politician in the country. When the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini rose to power, suppressing all the other parties, including the PPI, Sturzo was forced into exile, while Scelba remained in Rome as his informer. During the regime, Scelba wrote for the newspaper Il Popolo ("The People"); when it was banned by the Italian fascist regime in 1925, he founded a clandestine weekly newspaper known as L'idea popolare ("People's Idea"). In these years, Scelba started his career as a lawyer in the law firm of Filippo Del Giudice, and when the latter was forced to leave the country to save from fascist repression, Scelba inherited his customers.

In 1929, Scelba married Nerina Palestini, from San Benedetto del Tronto, from whom he had a daughter Maria Luisa, born in 1930.

Early political career
During the 1930s, Scelba became a close friend of Alcide De Gasperi, former leader of the People's Party after Sturzo's exile. Along with De Gasperi, he collaborated in the drafting of the "Reconstructive Ideas of Christian Democracy", the first programmatic document of the future party, which was published in July 1943. Scelba was part of the committee which led the new party, known as the DC, during the German occupation. He was also arrested by the Nazis but was released within three days. After the liberation of Rome in June 1944, he joined the executive committee of the new party. In the interregional congress of the DC, held in Naples on 29 and 30 July 1944, Scelba was elected to the party's national council, which appointed De Gasperi as new secretary. Scelba was instead appointed deputy secretary.

In September 1943, as a member of the DC, Scelba joined the National Liberation Committee (CLN), a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the armistice of Cassibile. On 21 June 1945, Ferruccio Parri, leader of the Action Party, became the new Prime Minister and appointed Scelba as Minister of Mails and Telecommunications, a position that he would held until February 1947, even under the premiership of Alcide De Gasperi.

On 25 September 1945, Scelba was appointed in the National Council, the unelected legislative assembly established in the Kingdom of Italy after the end of war. In the 1946 Italian general election, Scelba was elected in the Constituent Assembly for the constituency of Catania–Messina–Siracusa–Ragusa–Enna with nearly 40,000 votes.

Minister of the Interior
On 2 February 1947, Scelba became Minister of the Interior in the third government of Alcide de Gasperi, and remained in office until July 1953. During these years, Scelba was probably the most powerful man in the country, after De Gasperi. Having witnessed the Red Biennium and the violent fascist reaction, which caused the crisis of the liberal state and the subsequent formation of the dictatorship, Scelba was deeply convinced that the control of public order was necessary for the defense of the newly founded democratic and republican institutions; in fact, during all his tenure he was a strong advocate of law and order policies. His hard-fisted record earned him the nickname "Iron Sicilian" for his ruthless suppression of left-wing workers' protests and strikes, as well as neo-fascist rallies.

Portella della Ginestra massacre
After just three months in office as Minister of the Interior, Scelba was confronted with the Portella della Ginestra massacre. Twelve days after the left-wing election victory in the Sicilian regional elections of 1947, the May 1 labour parade in Portella della Ginestra was attacked, culminating in the killing of 11 people and the wounding of over thirty. The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano, the aim being to punish local leftists for the recent election results.

Scelba reported to Parliament the next day that so far as the police could determine, the Portella della Ginestra shooting was non-political. He claimed that bandits notoriously infested the valley in which it occurred; however, that version was challenged by the left. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) deputy Girolamo Li Causi stressed the political nature of the massacre, claiming that the Mafia had perpetrated the attack, in cahoots with the large landowners, monarchists and the rightist Common Man's Front. He also claimed that police inspector Ettore Messana – supposed to coordinate the prosecution of the bandits – had been in league with Giuliano and denounced Scelba for allowing Messana to remain in office. Later documents would substantiate the accusation.

Li Causi and Scelba would be the main opponents in the aftermath of the massacre – the subsequent killing of alleged perpetrator, Salvatore Giuliano, and the trial against Giuliano's lieutenant Gaspare Pisciotta and other remaining members of Giuliano's gang. The trial of those responsible was held in the city of Viterbo, starting in the summer of 1950. During the trial, Scelba was again accused of involvement in the plot to carry out the massacre, but the accusations were often contradictionary or vague. In the end, the judge concluded that no higher authority had ordered the massacre, and that the Giuliano band had acted autonomously. At the trial Pisciotta said: "Again and again Scelba has gone back on his word: Mattarella and Cusumano returned to Rome to plead for total amnesty for us, but Scelba denied all his promises." Pisciotta also claimed that he had killed Salvatore Giuliano in his sleep by arrangement with Scelba; however, there was no evidence that Scelba had had any relationship with Pisciotta.

1948 election
The general election in April 1948 was heavily influenced by the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the leftist coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded PCI would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.

The election campaign remained unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's republican history. The DC propaganda became famous in claiming that in Communist countries "children sent parents to jail", "children were owned by the state", "people ate their own children", and claiming disaster would strike Italy if the left-wing would take power.

As interior minister, Scelba announced that the government had 330,000 men under arms, including a special shock force of 150,000 ready to take on communists if they would try to make troubles on election day. The election was eventually won with a comfortable margin by the DC; the DC defeated the left-wing coalition of the Popular Democratic Front (FDP) that comprised the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). After the election, De Gasperi continued ruling without the PCI, which had been in government from June 1944, when the first post-war government was formed, until May 1947, while Scelba kept his role as Minister of the Interior.

Reorganization of the police
During his ministry, Scelba deeply reorganized the Italian police, starting with the expulsion of more than 8,000 former partisans, with the accusation of being communist insurgents. When he took office, the police's organization was so shoddy that Scelba exclaimed: "If I were communist, I would start a revolution tomorrow." During his rule, he transformed country's dishevelled police into a force of some 100,000 agents and established a riot squad, heavily armed and equipped with armoured cars and special jeep, called the Reparto Celere ("Fast Department"). Scelba made himself known as a man of action against what he considered communist disorder. In doing so, Scelba was criticised also by many DC members who disapproved his harsh methods. In 1952, he wrote the Scelba Law, which introduced the crime of apology of fascism.

Scelba had a conservative attitude toward certain issues such as scant bathing suits, public kissing and nude statues. Despite this and his single-minded concern for law and order, on socio-economic issues Scelba leaned left of centre in the DC. He favoured more social reforms and public works, attacking speculators for pushing up prices. He once said: "It is virtually impossible to be Minister of Interior for a government that does not care if the people work or not." Scelba emphasized the possibility of undermining communist strength "by determined measures of social and economic improvement, like a land reform of the great estates in Southern Italy, for example." While in office, he was also involved in setting up the Gladio network, the clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II, intended to organise resistance after a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe.

1953 election

The 1953 general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a superbonus of two thirds of seats in the House for the coalition which would obtain at-large the absolute majority of votes. The change was strongly opposed by the opposition parties as well as DC's smaller coalition partners, who had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the Scam Law by its detractors, including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial landslide to the DC. The campaign of the opposition to the Scam Law achieved its goal. The government coalition won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working majority of seats in both houses. But frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition. De Gasperi was forced to resign by the Italian Parliament on 2 August. On 17 August, President Einaudi appointed Pella as new Prime Minister of Italy.

Prime Minister of Italy
Pella's government lasted only five months, and Fanfani became the new Prime Minister in January 1954; however, he was forced to resign after only 23 days in power, and then Italian president Luigi Einaudi gave Scelba the task of forming a new cabinet. On 10 February, he sworn in as new Prime Minister at the head of a centrist coalition government composed by DC, Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) and Italian Liberal Party (PLI).

During his premiership, he built strong relations with the United States and NATO and resolved many wartime issues notably including the difficult situation in the Free Territory of Trieste. Few months before, former Prime Minister Pella risked an open conflict with Josip Tito's Yugoslavia, Scelba instead pursued a diplomatic way, which brought to the sign of the "London Memorandum" on 5 October 1954. The deal gave the former "Zone A" with Trieste to Italy for ordinary civil administration, and "Zone B", which had already had a Communist government since 1947, to Yugoslavia.

While appointed Prime Minister, the aftermath of the Portella della Ginestra massacre came to haunt Scelba again. On 9 February 1954, Gaspare Pisciotta was found dead in his cell. After Pisciotta had been sentenced to life in imprisonment and forced labour, he realized that he had been abandoned by all. He declared that he was going to tell the whole truth, in particular who signed the letter which had been brought to Giuliano, which demanded the massacre at Portella delle Ginestra in exchange for liberty for the bandits and which Giuliano had destroyed immediately. The cause of Pisciotta's death, as revealed by the autopsy, was the ingestion of 20 mg of strychnine. Both the government and the Sicilian Mafia were suggested as being behind the murder of Pisciotta, although no one was ever brought to trial. Neo-fascist and communist press did their best to put it on newly appointed Scelba's administration but had no evidence to go on.

Another scandal that hurled Scelba's government was the Montesi affair. Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni, a co-founder of DC, as well as the national police chief, had to resign when Piccioni's jazz-pianist son was implicated in the scandal involving sex, narcotics and the death of party girl Wilma Montesi. In social policy, the government introduced in August 1954 an investment plan for the public construction of economic housing.

At the end of 1954, Scelba approved a package of measures against the PCI and trade unions that was largely modelled on United States psychological warfare plans first elaborated in 1951–52. This proved to be only an attempt to consolidate his precarious position at home by obtaining formal American backing. Its half-hearted implementation exacerbated Washington's resentment toward its Italian allies and barely affected PCI's organizational structure. The PCI used the episode to denounce the illiberal and authoritarian nature of the DC government and to pose itself once more as the real defender of political freedoms and constitutional rights.

In April 1955, Giovanni Gronchi was elected new president of the Italian Republic. Scelba presented to the newly elected head of state the formal resignation of his government: it was an act of courtesy towards the new president, who, in the absence of a majority crisis, should reject them, but Gronchi did not do it. This generated a real political crisis, during which Fanfani, as secretary of the DC, kept Scelba out the formation of the new cabinet, even if he was formally the designated Prime Minister. In July 1955 Scelba renounced the office, and on 6 July, Antonio Segni sworn in as new Prime Minister. Scelba, whose fall was caused by political maneuvering of his party's rivals, always stated that he had been overthrown not by a parliamentary vote but by party coup.

After the premiership
After his resignation, a period of centre-left governments began and Scelba lost lot of his influence over the party. In 1958, Scelba formed his own faction within the DC, known as Centrismo popolare ("People's Centrism") and composed conservative by politicians such Guido Gonella, Roberto Lucifredi, Mario Martinelli and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, which would be dissolved in 1968.

On 26 July 1960, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in Fanfani's third cabinet. In fact, the disorders which caused the fall of Fernando Tambroni's government, made Scelba's return to the Viminale Palace necessary to protect public order against violent demonstrations. In that role he also had to face the broke out of tensions in South Tyrol, where some serious bombing attacks had taken place by South Tyrolean separatist movements. Scelba adopted extraordinary measures to save public order and established an advisory commission called to draw up proposals to promote coexistence between different ethnic-linguistic groups. Scelba remained in office until February 1962, when Fanfani proposed a cabinet reshuffle, ousting him from office.

During the rest of his political career, he always tried to oppose the positions of DC members who, like Fanfani and Aldo Moro, worked to overcome centrist policies, starting a gradual convergence with the PSI. A fervent supporter of European integration, he was a member of the European Parliament from 1960 to 1979 and served as President of the EP from 1969 to 1971, becoming the third Italian to hold the office after De Gasperi and Pella. He ran in the first European election in June 1979, for the constituency Italian Islands, receiving nearly 200,000 votes but he did not succeed in being elected, arriving third after Salvo Lima and Vincenzo Giumarra. In 1983, after the end of the 8th legislature, he retired from politics.

Death and legacy
On 29 October 1991, Scelba died of thrombosis aged 90 at his home in Rome. Within the DC, Scelba had always represented the tradition of popularismo, which was deeply linked to the PPI. He embodied the values of democratic Catholicism and anti-fascism, inherited by Don Sturzo's policies. Scelba always loyally supported De Gasperi in building a democratic and parliamentarian system during the post-war years. In his relationship with the Catholic Church, even as a practicing Catholic, Scelba defended the secularism of the state and its independence from the Catholic Church.

Scelba was bestknown for his law and order policies. As minister, he went through a repressive policy which, according to historians like Giuseppe Carlo Marino, professor at the University of Palermo, represented an anti-democratic action. Scelba's aversion to socialist and communist ideas of social justice led to violating the constitutional freedoms. According to Indro Montanelli, the police reorganization that Scelba carried out allowed a drastic reduction in political crimes and an improvement in the security of citizens.

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Giuseppe Pella

Giuseppe Pella (18 April 1902 – 31 May 1981) was an Italian Christian Democratic politician and statesman who served as the 31st prime minister of Italy from 1953 to 1954. He was also Minister of Treasury, Budget and of Foreign Affairs during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pella served as President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of Alcide De Gasperi.

Pella is widely considered one of the most important politicians in Italy's post-war history. His laissez-faire economic and monetary policies strongly influenced the Italian reconstruction and the subsequent economic miracle.

Early life and career
Giuseppe Pella was born in Valdengo, Piedmont. He was the second son of Luigi Pella and Viglielmina Bona, sharecroppers in a small farm. After having obtained his elementary school certificate privately, he attended the three-year period of technical schools in Biella and then an accounting Institute in Turin. After graduating in Economy and Commerce at the Royal Superior Institute of Turin in 1924, he became a professor of accounting at the Sapienza University of Rome and University of Turin. He also started working as tax advisor and auditor.

Under the regime of Benito Mussolini, Pella was forced to join the National Fascist Party (PNF), to continue his occupation as tax advisor and professor. As a fascist, he was appointed member of the Governing Council of the Fascist Culture Provincial Institute of Biella and consultant of the municipality of Biella. In the late 1930s he was appointment deputy podestà of Biella, with the task of reorganizing city's financial system.

In 1934, Pella married Ines Maria Cardolle, from whom he had a daughter, Wanda, born in 1938.

During the Italian Civil War, Pella started cooperating with the National Liberation Committee (CLN), a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the armistice of Cassibile. After the end of the World War II, he joined the Christian Democracy (DC), led by Alcide De Gasperi, becoming one of the main members of the party's right wing. After the 1946 general election, he became a member of the Constituent Assembly of Italy. In July 1946, he was appointed under-secretary of Finances in the second and third governments of De Gasperi. On 6 June 1947, De Gasperi appointed him Minister of Finance in his fourth cabinet.

Minister of Treasury and Budget
From May 1948 until January 1954 Pella served as Minister of Budget under the premiership of Alcide De Gasperi. Moreover, from May 1948 until July 1951 and again from February 1952 to August 1953, he also served as Minister of Treasury. As minister he implemented liberist and monetarist policies, characterized by a strong laissez-faire capitalism, which gained him the enmity of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and Italian Socialist Party (PSI), as well as harsh criticism from members of Christian Democracy's left-wing, like Giuseppe Dossetti and Giorgio La Pira. The American experts of the Marshall Plan, who arrived in Rome to check the use of Plan's funds, were disconcerted that not a dollar had been spent on a Roosevelt-like public spending policy: the funds had in fact been used exclusively to bring order to the public finance and to stabilize the state budget following the thought of Luigi Einaudi.

Prime Minister of Italy
The 1953 general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a superbonus of two thirds of seats in the House for the coalition which would obtain at-large the absolute majority of votes. The change was strongly opposed by the opposition parties as well as DC's smaller coalition partners, who had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the Scam Law by its detractors, including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial landslide to Christian Democracy.

In the 7 June election, the government coalition won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working majority of seats in both houses, but frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition, which ended on 2 August, when De Gasperi was forced to resign by the Parliament. On 17 August, President Einaudi appointed Pella as new Prime Minister. Pella Cabinet was immediately labeled as "administrative government", with the only aim of approving the budget law. As premier, he also served as ad interim Minister of Budget and Foreign Affairs.

Pella gained further critics when, by issuing nationalistic declarations, he created strife with Josip Broz Tito regarding the Free Territory of Trieste. The Yugoslav dictator declared he would have invaded Trieste if the Americans had assigned it to Italy. Then, Pella threatened to send troops to the Eastern border in response to Tito's provocation. The crisis that could result in a military confrontation was brought back after many diplomatic efforts by the Western powers. His interventionism provoked opposite reactions in Parliament and in the press: Monarchist National Party (PNM) and the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) strongly supported him, while the leftist parties, and especially the communists, accused him of nationalism and anti-communism. Much of his own party remained neutral, partly because the governments of United States and United Kingdom wanted to keep good relations with Yugoslavia even at the cost of penalizing Italy. The media, however, described Pella as a patriot and as a courageous statesman. Much of the public opinion appreciated his policies.

On 12 January 1954, after only 5 months in power, a strong confrontation with many members of DC, regarding the appointment of Salvatore Aldisio as new Minister of Agriculture, forced Pella to resign.

After the premiership
After the end of his government, in November 1954, Pella was elected President of the Common Assembly, the plenary assembly of European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which had been considered as the prototype of the European Parliament. He hold the office until November 1956. His pro-European vision was clearly outlined already in the inauguration speech as president, where he sustained the need to create a Europe "inspired by the concept of supernationality, built not against nations but with the sincere collaboration of nations." Few years later, discussing about his years at the head of the European institution, he stated that he always held his office "with the determination to pursue the strategic plan of a progressive transfer of sovereignty from the member States to the European institutions."

In 1954, he founded, along with Giulio Andreotti, a right-wing faction of Christian Democracy, known as "Concentration". In 1955 he was one of the kingmakers of Giovanni Gronchi's election to the Presidency of the Republic, against Cesare Merzagora, who was the candidate proposed by the Christian Democratic secretary, Amintore Fanfani. Pella and Andreotti's move gained the surprising support of communist and socialist parties, as well as the one monarchist and neo-fascist movements. After Gronchi's sworn in, Pella was considered the natural candidate for the premiership, however the new President of the Republic appointed Antonio Segni.

In May 1957, Pella served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Adone Zoli, of whom he served also as Deputy Prime Minister. He became Foreign Affairs Minister again under Segni, from February 1959 until March 1960, and Minister of Budget in Fanfani III Cabinet from July 1960 to February 1962.

A strong opponent of Fanfani's alliance with the Socialist Party, from 1962 he decided to keep aside. In the later years, he became president of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee from 18 July 1968 to 23 February 1972 and briefly returned to the government as Finance Minister in the first government of Giulio Andreotti from February to June 1972, which however failed to gain confidence by the Parliament.

After leaving politics in 1976, he continued his role of President of "National Association of Insurance Institutes" and of the "Association of Tax Advisors and Accountants". He also led "Piemonte Italia", a promotional institute of studies on the regional economy, which he founded in the 1960s.

Pella died on 31 May 1981 in Rome, at the age of 79.

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Talk:Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems

Updated Logo
Someone needs to update the logo from the old NIPS logo to the new NeurIPS logo: http://ciml.chalearn.org/ciml2018/Neur_IPS.png -- I'd do it myself, but Wikipedia makes this require additional effort. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chriskanan (talk • contribs) 03:52, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

Untitled
this would appear to be useful, just in need of pertinate info. (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/NIPS/NIPS2001/prevconf.html)

updates
I've had a go at updating the entry. But I'm a newcomer at NIPS, so it might be a little off.

Shouldn't the sentence "..and the conference spans a lot less wide range of topics." instead read "..and the conference spans a lot *wider* range of topics." ? This is what I understand from the text before that point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.191.100.2 (talk) 01:09, 3 December 2007 (UTC)


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Augusto de Lima

Antônio Augusto de Lima (5 April 1859 – 22 April 1934) was a Brazilian journalist, poet, musician, magistrate, jurist, professor and politician. He was born in Congonhas de Sabará (now Nova Lima).

Augusto de Lima was governor of the state of Minas Gerais, and he idealized the transfer of the state's capital from Ouro Preto to Belo Horizonte (then "Curral Del Rey"). In 1903, he became a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and was elected its president in 1928.

In 1906, Augusto de Lima was elected deputado federal (house representative) and moved to Rio de Janeiro, the federal district. There, he married Vera Monteiro de Barros de Suckow, granddaughter of Hans Wilhelm von Suckow, Major of the Prussian Army (who fought Napoleon's army in the Battle of Waterloo) and patron of Brazil’s horse racing —  the first breeder of race horses in Brazil.

As a politician, Augusto de Lima defended female suffrage and was also an ecologist. He was strongly devoted to Saint Francis of Assisi, and was responsible for the first Amazon forest protection law in Brazil, implemented after a fifteen-year battle in congress.

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The Indian Tomb (1921 film)

The Indian Tomb (German: Das indische Grabmal) is a two-part 1921 German silent film directed by Joe May.

It is based on the 1918 novel Das indische Grabmal by Thea von Harbou. It comprised two parts, Part I: The Mission of the Yogi and Part II: The Tiger of Bengal (Die Sendung des Yoghi; Der Tiger von Eschnapur). Part I received its première in Berlin on 22 October 1921, and Part II on 17 November 1921.

Upon its release, it was neither a critical nor commercial success and has been little seen until two recent restorations were completed, a European film restoration and a U.S. video restoration by David Shepard.

Cast

 * Olaf Fønss – Herbert Rowland
 * Mia May – Irene Amundsen, Rowland's fiancée
 * Conrad Veidt – Ayan III, the Maharajah of Bengal
 * Erna Morena – Princess Savitri
 * Bernhard Goetzke – Ramigani 'Rami', the Yogi
 * Lya De Putti – Mirrjha
 * Paul Richter – MacAllan, an English officer
 * Georg John – A penitent
 * Louis Brody – Black servant
 * Max Adalbert – (uncredited)

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Bertrand Berry

Bertrand Demond Berry (born August 15, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Early years
Berry, whose nickname is "King" started his football career in the Humble Area Football League with the Cardinals as a running back.HAFL Berry attended Humble High School in Humble, Texas, and was a star running back for the Wildcats. where he was a three-sport standout in basketball, football, and track. In basketball, he was a two-time all-district selection, and in track, he threw the discus and set the school record for the shuttle hurdle relays.

College career
Berry attended the University of Notre Dame and was a four-year letterman in football. He finished his NCAA football career with 187 tackles and 16.5 sacks.

Professional career
Berry was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 1997 NFL draft, starting out as a linebacker before switching to defensive end. He spent most of his time there playing between defense and special teams, starting most of the games on defense. He signed with the St. Louis Rams in 2000, but was cut during training camp.

He signed with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League on September 26, 2000, on October 11 after seeing action in two games. He recorded one tackle in his two appearances.

By the 2003 season with the Denver Broncos, he was the starter at defensive end and led the team in tackles and sacks. He was picked up as a free agent by Arizona before the 2004 season, during which he was named as a starter to represent the NFC in the 2005 Pro Bowl.

On March 18, 2009, Berry agreed to a one-year contract.

On January 21, 2010, Berry announced his retirement from the NFL. He finished his career with 232 total tackles, 65 sacks and 13 forced fumbles.

NFL statistics
Key
 * GP: games played
 * COMB: combined tackles
 * TOTAL: total tackles
 * AST: assisted tackles
 * SACK: sacks
 * FF: forced fumbles
 * FR: fumble recoveries

Broadcasting career
In August 2011, Berry began hosting a radio show on The Fan AM 1060 KDUS in Phoenix called "The Bertrand Berry Show" with Mike Grose every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00. The show was cancelled effective December 28, 2012.

On April 23, 2015, Berry had a fill-in role for Ron Wolfley on the Doug and Wolf Show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, a local Arizona radio station. On August 3, Berry began hosting "Off the Edge with B-Train" on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

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Dmanisi

Dmanisi (დმანისი,, Başkeçid) is a town and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera. The hominin site is dated to 1.8 million years ago. It was the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa before stone tools dated to 2.1 million years were discovered in 2018 in Shangchen, China.

A series of skulls which had diverse physical traits, discovered at Dmanisi in the early 2010s, led to the hypothesis that many separate species in the genus Homo were in fact a single lineage. Also known as Skull 5, D4500 is the fifth skull to be discovered in Dmanisi.

History
The area around the town of Dmanisi has been settled since the Early Bronze Age. In the 6th century an Orthodox Christian cathedral named "Dmanisi Sioni" was built there. The oldest written record of the town is in the 9th century as a possession of the Arab emirate of Tbilisi. Located on the confluence of trading routes and cultural influences, Dmanisi was particularly important, growing into a major commercial center of medieval Georgia. The town was taken by the Seljuk Turks in the 1080s and by the Georgian kings David the Builder and Demetrios I between 1123 and 1125. The Turco-Mongol armies under Timur laid waste to the town in the 14th century. Sacked again by the Turkomans in 1486, Dmanisi never recovered and declined to a scarcely inhabited village by the 18th century. The castle was controlled by the House of Orbeliani.

Archaeological site
Extensive archaeological studies began in the area in 1936 and continued in the 1960s. Beyond a rich collection of ancient and medieval artifacts and the ruins of various buildings and structures, unique remains of prehistoric animals and humans have been unearthed. Some of the animal bones were identified by the Georgian paleontologist A. Vekua with the teeth of the extinct rhino Dicerorhinus etruscus etruscus in 1983.

This species dates back presumably to the early Pleistocene epoch. The discovery of primitive stone tools in 1984 led to increasing interest to the archaeological site. In 1991, a team of Georgian scholars was joined by the German archaeologists from Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, and later the U.S., French and Spanish researchers.

Homo erectus georgicus
Early human (or hominin) fossils, originally named Homo georgicus and now considered Homo erectus georgicus, were found at Dmanisi between 1991 and 2005. At 1.8 million years old, they are now believed to be a subspecies of Homo erectus and not a separate species of Homo. These fossils represent the earliest known human presence in the Caucasus.

Subsequently, four fossil skeletons were found, showing a species primitive in its skull and upper body but with relatively advanced spines and lower limbs. A 2017 study suggests they represent a stage soon after the transition from Homo Habilis to Homo erectus.

Human habitation in the Caucasus goes back to the remotest antiquity. The hominin remains discovered in 1991 by David Lordkipanidze at Dmanisi, Kvemo Kartli (1.8 million years old) are the oldest found outside Africa. Neanderthal remains have been found at Ortvale K’lde (1973) and elsewhere in the Caucasus (36,000–50,000 years old).

The Dmanisi hominin remains are still making an impact on the paleontological community. the Dmanisi skull 5 is in the middle of the controversy: many hominin fossils formerly thought to be different species may not have been separate species at all. Several early members of the genus Homo were possibly one evolving lineage.

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Ferruccio Parri

Ferruccio Parri (19 January 1890 – 8 December 1981) was an Italian partisan and anti-fascist politician who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Italy, and the first to be appointed after the end of World War II. During the war, he was also known by his nom de guerre Maurizio.

Biography
Parri was born in Pinerolo, Piedmont. He served in World War I, when he was wounded four times and received four decorations. In the final stages of the war he worked as a staff officer on the planning of the battle of Vittorio Veneto. After the war he graduated in literature and became a teacher in Milan and an editor for the Corriere della Sera. He left the newspaper in 1925, after it was taken over by the Fascist government, and had to quit his teaching job because he refused to join the National Fascist Party.

Resistance to Fascism
He became active against Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime and joined Carlo and Nello Rosselli's Giustizia e Libertà) ("Justice and Liberty"), the most important Italian non-Marxist anti-fascist movement.

In 1926, together with Carlo Rosselli and future President of Italy Sandro Pertini he was involved in planning and assisting the escape to France of reformist Socialist leader Filippo Turati. For this he was arrested and sentenced to ten months of imprisonment and then to five years of internal exile to the islands of Ustica and Lipari and to Vallo della Lucania. In 1930 he was again banished for five years together with other leaders of Giustizia e Libertà.

Parri remained in contact with Giustizia e Libertà, and in 1942 founded the Action Party, an anti-fascist liberal socialist movement that sought to pair social justice and respect for civil liberties. In September 1943, after the armistice between Italy and the Allied powers and the German occupation of Italy, he was among the people indicated by anti-fascist parties to take a leading role in the Italian resistance movement. Living underground in Nazi-occupied Northern Italy, he became a member of the National Liberation Committee and deputy commander of the main group of partisan forces, the Corpo Volontari della Libertà.

He was arrested in Milan in January 1945 by the Waffen SS during a routine operation. He was held prisoner until March when he was released as part of Operation Sunrise – a series of secret negotiations between Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and representatives of the German Wehrmacht command in Northern Italy. The release of Parri was requested by the OSS as evidence of good faith and the ability to act. He returned in time to take part in the final phase of the resistance and in the general insurrection in April.

By the time the war ended the Giustizia e Libertà Brigades, the military arm of the Action Party, were the second largest partisan units, accounting for about 20% of all fighters of the Italian resistance movement.

Prime Minister of Italy
After the end of World War II, he was appointed leader of a government supported, among the others, by the Action Party, Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana; DC), the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano; PCI), the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano; PSI) and the Italian Liberal Party (Partito Liberale Italiano; PLI). A centrist, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police). When the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position.

At the time, Parri warned: "Beware of civil war ... of reopening the door to fascism. ... There are rumors that Washington and London have no trust in me. The real reason for this lack of trust is that Italy has only a fragile front of antifascism. ... I hope my successors will follow the only worthy policy for Italy: left of center".

In Parliament
In spite of the wartime strength of Giustizia e libertà the Action Party quickly faded from the Italian political scene, winning 1.46% in the 1946 Constituent Assembly election. Parri, along with Ugo La Malfa, left the party shortly before the election to form the Republican Democratic Concentration (Concentrazione Democratica Repubblicana; CDR), which won 0.42% and elected its two most prominent members as deputies. The CDR would be absorbed the following year into the Italian Republican Party (PRI).

He became a Senator in 1948.

In 1953 Parri, who was opposed to recent changes to the election law, left the PRI to establish the short-lived Popular Unity (Unità Popolare; UP) with former Action Party member Piero Calamandrei, with the goal of preventing the centrist coalition from winning a majority bonus of seats. The party, which failed to elect any members, was absorbed into the Italian Socialist Party in 1957.

In 1958 he was re-elected to the Senate as an independent in the Socialist party list. He proposed to form a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the Sicilian Mafia. The proposal was opposed by the parliamentary majority with various arguments, and dismissed by Christian Democratic Senators Bernardo Mattarella and Giovanni Gioia as "useless". It was finally established in 1963.

In 1963, President Antonio Segni appointed Parri senator for life. He joined the Independent Left group, and was for a long time its chairman from 1972 until his death. In March of the same year, he became the editor of the magazine L'Astrolabio, in which he argued in favour of a more accomplished democracy and denounced the resurgence of neofascism.

From 1949 until 1969 he was president of the Italian Federation of Partisan Associations, an association of Resistance veterans that grouped members of Giustizia e Libertà, as well as members of Socialist, Republican, and anarchist groups.

Death
Parri died in Rome on 8 December 1981.

He once characterized himself: "I am a common man – uomo della strada. I am just another guy – uomo qualunque ... I hope a typical one. My job is not only to prevent the right and left wings from exercising undue influence on the Government, but I have to think too of the enormous masses of peasants sweating in the fields under the sun, blacksmiths beating their anvils in villages, workers, men and women everywhere who have no taste for politics and are outside parties. ... I am just a uomo della strada."

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Elections in Hong Kong

Elections in Hong Kong take place when certain political offices in the government need to be filled. Hong Kong has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in the Legislative Council. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is nonpartisan but has to work with several parties to form a coalition government.

Every four years, ninety representatives are chosen to sit on the unicameral Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). Twenty seats representing the geographical constituencies are returned by popular vote, thirty seats representing the functional constituencies are elected through smaller closed elections within business sectors, and the remaining forty seats representing the Election Committee constituency are chosen by members of the Election Committee. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is returned by the 1,500-member Election Committee on five-year intervals. Local elections are held on four-year intervals to return members of District Councils. Following the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and the landslide victory of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp in the 2019 Hong Kong local elections, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China unilaterally passed the Hong Kong national security law and changes to Annex I and Annex II of the Hong Kong Basic Law. Pro-democracy activists are now prevented from participating in future elections, curtailing the influence of the public's vote on the outcome.

History
Elections for unofficial members of the Urban Council were held since 1888. Suffrage was restricted to residents on the special and common jury lists between 1888 and 1973. In 1973, the electoral franchise for the Urban Council was widened to residents above 21 years of age who have lived in Hong Kong for at least three years that qualified in at least one of 23 specified categories, which included educational qualifications (School Certificate Examination or equivalent), being a juror, salaried taxpayer, or a member of certain professional organisations as listed in Schedule 1 of the Urban Council Ordinance (Cap. 101, Laws of Hong Kong). Half of the members of the Urban Council were elected, but by a minority of the population. It was estimated that in 1970 there were 250,000 eligible voters and in 1981 the number had increased to 400,000 – 500,000. Prominent elected Urban Councilors included Elsie Tu and Brook Bernacchi of the Reform Club.

Expansion of elected offices
The Green Paper: A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong was published on 6 June 1980 for public consultations on reforming local administration in Hong Kong. The Green Paper recommended that elections by popular vote be introduced to return some members of the newly established District Boards and unofficial members of the Urban Council. The White Paper: District Administration in Hong Kong of January 1981 further cemented the government's will to introduce elections by popular vote. Proposals in the White Paper were implemented between 1982 and 1983, during which elections to the District Boards and Urban Council were held.

Months before the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed which the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China governments agreed on handing over Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the Green Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong was published in July 1984. The Green Paper cemented first large-scale constitutional reform in developing a representative government during the British rule. The Green Paper suggested the introduction of indirect election in two stages in 1985 and 1988 to the unofficial members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) by an electoral college consisting of Members of the Urban Council of Hong Kong, the new Regional Council to be established in 1986, and District Boards and functional groups or functional constituencies. The first Legislative Council elections, electing 24 unofficial members of LegCo, was held in September 1985.

Popular elections to the legislature
Consultations on electoral reform followed the 1985 electoral reform. In the White Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong of 1984, the idea of direct election was suggested to be reviewed in the development of representative government in 1987.

In May 1987, the government published the 1987 Green Paper: Review of Developments in Representative Government to consider the next stage of development of representative government. Despite strong public opinion in the consultations supporting the introduction of direct elections, the Government concluded that no clear consensus on the timing or the extent of the introduction of direct elections emerged. The subsequent White Paper: the Development of Representative Government: The Way Forward delayed the first direct elections to the Legislative Council from 1988 to the 1991 elections. A total of 18 members were returned from geographical constituencies by popular vote, out of a total of 60 LegCo members.

As Chris Patten succeeded David Wilson as the last Governor of Hong Kong, extensive electoral reform proposals were announced in Patten's inaugural Policy Address. The minimum voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, and all appointed seats on the Urban Council, Regional Council and District Boards were to be abolished by 1995. Single-member constituencies were to be introduced to geographical constituencies of the Legislative Council, elected seats of the Urban Council, elected seats of the Regional Council and elected seats of District Boards.

Patten significantly broadened the electoral franchise to the first fully-elected Legislative Council returned in 1995, the composition of which conformed with Basic Law provisions on the composition of the 1st Legislative Council of Hong Kong SAR. Patten lobbied the Legislative Council (Electoral Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 1994 which broadened the franchise of certain existing functional constituencies by replacing corporate voting with individual voting. Nine new functional constituency seats were established, allowing about 2.7 million people to have the right to vote in functional constituencies. An Election Committee composed of district board members returned ten members to the Legislative Council.

In response to Patten's reforms, Beijing cancelled the "through-train arrangement" allowing the last Legislative Council in the British-era to be sworn in as the 1st Legislative Council of Hong Kong SAR after the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997. The Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong SAR under Chinese National People's Congress established the Provisional Legislative Council on 26 January 1996 that served as Hong Kong's interim legislature until July 1998.

Post-handover development
The Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) installed by the Beijing government during the intense Sino-British confrontation over the democratic reform decided on the electoral system of the post-handover Legislative Council. For geographical constituencies, proportional representation using the largest remainder method with Hare quota was adopted by the SAR government in replacement of the first-past-the-post system introduced in 1995. The system designed to reward the weaker pro-Beijing candidates and dilute the electoral strength of the majority democrats. For functional constituencies, corporate voting was restored after it was abolished in 1995. It reduced the number of eligible voters by almost 90 per cent, from over 1.1 million in 1995 to fewer than 140,000 in 1998. The elected Urban Council and Regional Council were also abolished by Tung Chee-hwa's government.

The first legislative election in the HKSAR was held in 1998, with 20 members returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections, 10 members returned by the 800-member Election Committee and 30 members returned by functional constituencies (FC). The number of LegCo members returned from geographical constituencies (GC) increased from 20 to 24 in 2000 and to 30 in 2004, constituting half of the legislature. Seats returned by Election Committee were abolished by 2004.

The first Chief Executive election after the transfer of sovereignty was held in 2002. Incumbent Tung Chee-hwa was elected uncontested. Subsequent Chief Executives were returned by the Election Committee, members of which were elected by members of specified associations or professions.

Demand for universal suffrage
Before the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region had the power to initiate amendments of Annexes I and II of the Basic Law to change its electoral system. From late 2003 on, the Government and the public had been drawing out plans of democratisation to realise the ultimate aim of electing a chief executive by universal suffrage after nomination by an ad hoc committee (Basic Law, Art. 45) and electing the whole Legislative Council by universal suffrage (Basic Law, Art. 68). On 6 April 2004, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) issued its second interpretation on the Basic Law, indicating that electoral reforms are possible in 2007 and stipulating the “five steps” of initiating political reform under Annex I of the Basic Law. On 26 April 2004, the NPCSC further passed a decision that negated universal suffrage for CE elections in 2007 and LegCo elections in 2008, but provided for electoral reforms withstanding a 50:50 ratio between GC and FC seats. The Legislative Council vetoed the Motions put by the HKSAR Government to the LegCo concerning amendment to the methods for selecting the CE in 2007 and for forming LegCo.

In late 2007, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) decided that the universal suffrage for the Chief Executive can be achieved in 2017 or later, and universal suffrage for the Legislative Council can be achieved after the former has been. The NPCSC decision also provided for electoral reforms in 2012 withstanding a 50:50 ratio between GC and FC seats. The Legislative Council approved of the Motions concerning the amendment to the methods for selecting the CE and for forming LegCo in 2012.

Amidst the 2014–2015 Hong Kong electoral reform on universal suffrage in 2017, the NPCSC has outlined a screening mechanism of Chief Executive candidates, in which Chief Executive candidates must first receive nominations by an absolute majority of a Nominating Committee before proceeding to popular vote. The Hong Kong Government's bill for universal suffrage in Chief Executive elections was subsequently rejected.

With the NPCSC's amendment of Annexes I and II of the Basic Law in 2021, the NPCSC has retracted the power of the HKSAR to initiate political reform. The Chinese NPCSC now exercises the sole power to amend Annexes I and II of the Basic Law. In lieu of recent efforts by China to hamper the pro-democracy camp, universal suffrage remains unlikely.

The evolution of elected offices in Hong Kong returned by popular vote is as follows:

Voter registration and nomination
Any Hong Kong permanent resident aged 18 or above may register as an elector in the geographical constituency in which they reside, except those mentally incapacitated and those serving in an armed force. Persons serving a sentence of imprisonment used to be barred from registering and voting, but a 2008 judgment by the Court of First Instance of the High Court ruled that a blanket bar was unconstitutional and that the Government had a year to change the offending provisions. The Government did not appeal the judgment, and held consultations with the public on how the law should be changed. A bill was then introduced to the LegCo, providing that no person would be barred from electoral registration or voting because of criminal conviction, even for crimes against the electoral system. It became law and entered into force on 30 October 2009.

Hong Kong permanent residents must satisfy all the following requirements to be eligible for registration as electors in a geographical constituency:
 * permanent resident of Hong Kong;
 * aged 18 years or above as at 25 July next following his application for registration (or 25 September in a District Council election year)
 * ordinarily resident in Hong Kong, and the residential address in his application for registration is his only or principal residence in Hong Kong;
 * holds a Hong Kong identity document or has applied for a new identity card; and
 * not disqualified by application of s.31 of the Legislative Council Ordinance (Cap 542).

Electors can run for elections if they have reached 21 years of age and have ordinary resided in Hong Kong for the 3 years immediately preceding the nomination. In addition, candidates running for the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council, except 12 specified functional constituencies have to be a Chinese citizen with no right of abode in any country other than the People's Republic of China.

Candidate eligibility review
Under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes initiated by the National People's Congress, nominees for elections are screened so as to ensure the "administration of Hong Kong by Hong Kong people with patriots as the main body". A Candidate Eligibility Review mechanism is established to review and confirm of eligibility of candidates for the Election Committee, Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections:
 * Review by the department for safeguarding national security of the Hong Kong Police Force on whether a candidate meets the legal requirements and conditions of upholding the Basic Law and swearing allegiance to HKSAR of PRC;
 * the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR issues opinion in respect of a candidate who fails to meet such legal requirements and conditions on the basis of the police review; and
 * Review and Confirmation of eligibility of candidates by the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee of the HKSAR.

In practice, every candidate approved to run for election to the Legislative Council is either a member of the pro-Beijing camp or has otherwise been deemed "patriotic" enough by the government of China to participate. Since the 2021 reforms, numerous pro-democracy activists who had attempted to run in elections were arrested.

Chief Executive elections
The Election Committee is responsible for nomination of Chief Executive candidates and election of the Chief Executive-elect. Under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes initiated by the National People's Congress, each candidate running for Chief Executive elections is to be nominated by at least 188 members of the Election Committee, before their eligibility is reviewed and confirmed by the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee of the HKSAR according to opinions issued by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The	Chief Executive-designate is then returned by the Election Committee with an absolute majority.

Election Committee
The specific method for selecting the Chief Executive is prescribed in Annex I of the Basic Law. The Election Committee shall be composed of 1500 members from the following sectors pursuant to the amended Annex I under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes initiated by the National People's Congress from the following sectors pursuant to the amended Annex I under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes initiated by the National People's Congress. The Election Committee consists of individuals (i.e. private citizens) and representatives of bodies (i.e. special interest groups or corporate bodies) selected or elected by 40 prescribed sub-sectors as stipulated in Annex I to the Basic Law:

The Election Committee is now principally elected by body votes. The number of subsectors with individual votes were significantly reduced, together with elimination of mixed individual and body voting:
 * Half of seats (150 seats) in Sector III are nominated by members of national professional organisations or filled by ex officio members;
 * District Council subsectors were replaced by subsectors consisting of appointed representatives of members of Area Committees, District Fight Crime Committees, and District Fire Safety Committees;
 * All NPC and CPPCC sectors serve as ex officio EC members; and
 * subsectors consisting of grassroot organisations, associations of Chinese Fellow Townsmen, associations of Hong Kong residents in Mainland and Hong Kong members of relevant national organisations were introduced.

Electoral system
Chief Executive candidates must receive nominations by at least 188 members of the Election Committee, with Nomination by at least 15 members of each sector of the Election Committee. Candidacy is confirmed upon review and confirmation of eligibility by the Candidate Qualification Review Committee, according to opinions issued by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the basis of a review by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force on whether a candidate meets the legal requirements and conditions of upholding the Basic Law and swearing allegiance to the HKSAR of the People's Republic of China.

The Chief Executive-designate is then returned by the Election Committee with an absolute majority in a two-round system:

The Chief Executive-designate must publicly disaffiliate with a political party within seven days of the election and must not become a member of a party during their term of office. The Chief Executive-designate is then appointed by the Central People's Government before taking office.

Article 45
Article 45 gives the requirements for choosing the Chief Executive, and Annex I does likewise in a more specific manner.

"The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be selected by election or through consultations held locally and be appointed by the Central People's Government. "

"The method for selecting the Chief Executive shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures. "

Article 46
According to Article 46 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, elections for the Chief Executive are held every five years. A 1,500-member electoral college called the Election Committee is elected by representations of specified associations, and some other sectors of the society, with each of the forty sectors of the society and interests of the Central Authorities receiving a set number of electoral votes. The eligible voters in each sector vote directly for the electors, who in turn cast ballots for Chief Executive.

Pursuant to the Annex II of the Basic Law, the Election Committee also selected 10 Members of the 1st LegCo by block vote in 1998. Four of the seats were reassigned to geographical constituencies for the 2nd LegCo in 2000, and the remainder for the 3rd LegCo in 2004. As a part of the 2021 amendments to Annex II by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Election Committee selects 40 members of the LegCo since 2021.

The EC elections are quite irregular. They were held in 1998 and 2000, but none (except for the 2002 by-election) have been held since. The claim in Ann. 1, Sect. 2, of the Basic Law, saying that the Election Committee must be renewed at least once every five years.

Article 46 was a subject of controversy regarding the term of the newly elected Chief Executive. The article states:

"The term of office of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be five years. He or she may serve for not more than two consecutive terms."

The law requires a term of five years, but mainland officials have said the new leader filling-in can only serve until 2007. The matter was settled after a re-interpretation by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC). Though this did damage the credibility and integrity of the one country, two systems formula.

A literal interpretation would mean Tsang has to serve until 2010, but this is not common sense behaviour in most other nations; one can only complete the term of a predecessor. The Chinese government has decided that the new leader would serve until Inauguration day in 2007.

History of electoral contests
The last uncontested election was held in 2002, and with the resignation of Tung Chee Hwa an election would have been called on 10 July, had the election been contested. A controversial decision by the National People's Congress stated that a resignation did not end a term, so that Donald Tsang would serve only until 2007, rather than 2010 had a term been deemed to begin with each resignation. This is in line with the practice on mainland China (see Hong Kong Basic Law Article 46). The 800-member Election Committee held a vote on a day specified by the sitting chief executive sometime during the six months of the year prior to the HKSAR's Inauguration Day, 1 July. An absolute majority of the votes (i.e. 401 votes) are required to be elected. If no candidate has a majority vote, the one with the lowest vote is eliminated for the next round until a candidate has a majority vote.

In 1996, Tung Chee Hwa was elected with eighty per cent of the electoral votes against two other candidates, Mr. Peter Woo (吳光正) and Sir Ti Liang Yang (楊鐵樑). In 12002, Tung was re-elected uncontested, as he had received 713 signatures of support in the Electoral Committee, and 100 are required for nomination.(Annex I, Section 4, Basic Law)

The 2005 provided a sense of déjà vu for many, as Donald Tsang cruised to victory with 674 nomination signatures out of a possible 796 (four seats were vacant).

The EC elections are quite irregular. They were held in 1998 and 2000, but none (except for the 2002 by-election) have been held since. The claim in Ann. 1, Sect. 2, of the Basic Law, saying that the Election Committee must be renewed at least once every five years, exposed an interesting flaw in the system that was averted when Tsang was the only candidate nominated.

The problem was that the timing is crucial for the new chief executive election after Tung Chee Hwa's resignation on 12 March 2005. Since electoral law states that an election must be held 120 days after the vacancy, an election would be held on the tenth of July. It was unclear as to the exact time period separating the election and the date of taking of office for this Election Committee. If the new EC convened prior to the chief executive election, it would be applied to select the next chief executive, but otherwise the old Election Committee dating from 2000 would have to complete the task (see 2005 Hong Kong Chief Executive election for more information on the topic). The second round produces a further dispute, if the term of the old EC ended after the first round of voting but before the second. It would be rather insensible to use different electors for the two rounds; the same one would probably have to be prescribed.

The compositions of electoral colleges returning Chief Executives are as follows:

Legislative elections
Under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes initiated by the National People's Congress, the Legislative Council is now composed of 90 members returned from 3 constituencies: the Election Committee Constituency, Functional Constituencies and Geographical Constituencies by popular vote.

In Hong Kong, legislative elections are held every four years in accordance with Article 69 of the Basic Law of HKSAR. The most recent election was held on 19 December 2021.

Electoral system
Each candidate running for Legislative elections is to be nominated by 10–20 members of the Election Committee, before their eligibility is reviewed and confirmed by the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee of the HKSAR according to opinions issued by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region:

Geographical Constituencies
20 seats of the Legislative Council are returned by geographical constituencies (GC) through single non-transferable vote with a district magnitude of 2 ("binomial system"). The binomial system was instituted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in its amendment to Annex 2 of the Basic Law on 30 March 2021.

Geographical constituencies were first introduced in Hong Kong's first legislative election with direct elections in 1991. The electoral system and boundaries of GCs have since changed:

Functional Constituencies
Under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes, 28 functional constituencies (FC) return 30 members. The Labour Functional Constituency returns three members by plurality block voting. The other FCs return one member each with first-past-the-post voting.

The 2021 electoral reform saw the dissolution of District Council (First) and District Council (Second) FCs. 3 existing FCs were reconstituted: the Information Technology FC reorganised as the Technology & Innovation FC; the Medical FC and Health Services FC combined to form the Medical and Health Services FC. 2 new FCs were established, namely the Commercial (Third) and the HKSAR Deputies to the National People's Congress, HKSAR Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Representatives of Relevant National Organisations FCs. Functional constituencies are now principally elected by body votes; the number of FCs with individual votes were reduced, together with elimination of mixed individual and body voting systems.

Election Committee Constituency
The Election Committee constituency was one of the three constituencies designed in the Basic Law of Hong Kong next to the directly elected geographical constituencies and the indirectly elected functional constituencies for the first and second-term Legislative Council fin the early SAR period. With the last British Governor Chris Patten's electoral reform, the ECC was composed of all elected District Board members who had been elected in 1994. The Single Transferable Vote system was used in the 1995 election.

After the handover of Hong Kong, the ECC was allocated 10 seats out of the total 60 seats in the SAR Legislative Council, comprising all members of the Election Committee which also elected the Chief Executive every five years. The size of the constituency reduced to six seats in 2000 and was entirely abolished and replaced by the directly elected geographical constituency seats in the 2004 election. The plurality-at-large voting system was used in 1998 and 2000.

In the 2021 electoral overhaul, the Election Committee constituency was reintroduced, taking 40 of the 90 seats, almost half, of the Legislative Council with plurality-at-large voting system. The electorate is composed of all newly expanded 1,500 members in the Election Committee.

2010 electoral reform
The Legislative Council passed the Government's bill on amending Annex II of the Basic Law. The total number of Legislative Council members is increased from 60 to 70. Alongside the creation of five new geographical constituency seats, five new functional constituency seats were created in the District Council (Second) FC. The 5 new FC seats were returned by direct elections through proportional representation using the largest remainder method with Hare quota.

The 2010 electoral reform provides for parallel voting, in which each registered voter can participate in the elections of one geographical constituency and one functional constituency.

The District Council (Second) FC was abolished by the National People's Congress under the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes.

2012 by-election procedure amendment proposal
In mid-May 2011, the government, which considered the resignations leading to "de facto referendum" (2010 Hong Kong by-election) 'abusive' and a waste of resources, revealed its plan to do away with by-elections entirely. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam proposed that a Legislative Council seat in any geographical constituency or one of the newly created five-seat district council 'superconstituency' vacated by the resignation or death of a legislator would be filled by a 'leapfrog' mechanism by the next best placed candidate at the previous election. The plan attracted criticism from Pan-Democrats; even its allies in the legislature expressed reservations about the workability of the plan. The Bar Association severely criticised the plan, expressing concern over the constitutionality of the proposals, particularly the reasonableness on restrictions on the right to participation.

The government tabled a bill to amend current legislation for by-elections for 13 July. Following call by the Central Government Liaison Office to re-think, the government revised its proposal on 28 June stipulating replacement by an unsuccessful candidate on the same election ticket. The government bowed to pressure and announced one week later that it would suspend reading of the bill for two months, pending consultations on the revised proposals.

District Council elections
There are eighteen districts, and thus eighteen District Councils in Hong Kong, each being a city council for its district. There is one constituency for, on average, every 17,000 residents, as there are 452 directly-elected constituencies for 2019, and over 7.4 million residents in Hong Kong. A member is elected from each constituency by plurality vote. The chairpersons of the 27 rural committees are ex officio members of the councils.

Elections of deputies to the National People's Congress of the PRC
Article 21 of The Basic Law of HKSAR stipulates:

"Chinese citizens who are residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be entitled to participate in the management of state affairs according to law. In accordance with the assigned number of seats and the selection method specified by the National People's Congress (NPC), Chinese citizens among permanent residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall locally elect deputies of the Region to the National People's Congress to participate in the work of the highest organ of state power."

The 36 Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress are chosen by an electoral college composed of the following as specified in the Method for Election of Deputies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China to the Eleventh National People's Congress passed in March 2022:
 * Members of the Election Committee (which elects the chief executive) who are Chinese nationals, except those who opt out; and
 * The Chief Executive of the HKSAR

A total of 1,989 electors returned Hong Kong deputies in the 2017 election.

Village Representative elections
Rural Representatives consist of Village Representatives and Kaifong Representatives.

The Court of Final Appeal ruled that the Secretary for Home Affairs had to consider whether the person elected to represent a village was elected in accordance with electoral arrangements consistent with the Bill of Rights and the Sex Discrimination Ordinance whether to approve an elected Village Representative in December 2000. This decision caused Hong Kong Government to set up new arrangements for Village Representative. There are two types of Village Representatives, namely
 * Indigenous Inhabitant Representative representing indigenous inhabitants of an Indigenous Village; and
 * Resident Representative representing all residents of an Existing Village

Indigenous Inhabitant of an Indigenous Village that existed in 1898 (whether or not the name the Village now has is the same name it had in 1898) refers to:
 * a person who was in 1898 a resident of the Village; or
 * a person who is descended through the male line from a person mentioned above.

In 2013, the new Village Representative Election Ordinance has been implemented that the Kaifong Representatives from Cheung Chau and Peng Chau are regulated by the Home Affairs Department. The first new arrangements Village Representative elections was held in 2019. The next Village Representative elections would be held in 2023.

Electoral results

 * Legends
 * ：Pro-democracy Camp
 * ：Pro-Beijing Camp
 * ：non-aligned and others

title: Elections in Hong Kong


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Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/JonMoore

JonMoore
final (14/0/0) ending 22:47 11 December 2004 (UTC)

JonMoore is a dedicated editor with 1583 edits since June 19, 2003. Most of his edits in the past few months are related to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Jon has been a driving force for improving the article. He's created several important related articles such as 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal. Jon strives to use existing standards and WikiProjects, which is evident in his work on Salt Lake City and KSL-TV. Before focusing on Salt Lake City, JonMoore started and contributed to several articles which have grown considerably, such as FoxTrot. To my knowledge, this user has never been in an edit war, but he often uses talk pages to preempt potential disagreements. In the interests of full disclosure, this user has very few edits in the Wikipedia namespace, but given the extent he's familiar with WikiProjects and policies, I feel he's an excellent member of the community. Cool Hand Luke  22:47, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Thank you, I do accept. [[user:JonMoore|Jon, Conqueror of Men | (Talk!)]] 00:02, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Support
 * 1) Cool Hand Luke  22:47, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 2) Everyking 22:56, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 3) Fair enough. -- Grunt 🇪🇺 23:42, 2004 Dec 4 (UTC)
 * 4) J OHN C OLLISON [ Ludraman] 00:35, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 5) Lst27 ( t a l k )  02:02, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 6) Andre ( talk )A| 16:48, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)
 * 7) 172 01:28, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 8) Good work with the Salt Lake Olympics bid article, and candidate is also a model of non-confrontational concensus-building -- all in all top notch wikicommunity behaviour. Support. --Wernher 02:29, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 9) support Pedant 01:00, 2004 Dec 7 (UTC)
 * 10) Definite support. +sj. +  02:56, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 11) [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality/talk]] 16:57, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)
 * 12) Support. ffirehorse 01:22, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 13) Just the sort I enjoy supporting. Mackensen (talk) 06:27, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * 14) Looks to me like an involved, devoted contributor. --Slowking Man 23:04, Dec 11, 2004 (UTC)

Oppose

Neutral Comments

Questions for the candidate

A few generic questions to provide guidance for voters:
 * 1. What sysop chores, if any, would you anticipate helping with? (Please read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.)
 * A. The ability to quickly revert vandalized pages has always been a desire of mine. I have done it before, but, of course by sheer brute force of copy/paste. Vandalism saddens me, and the ability to fix it would be wonderful. Also deleting patent nonsense would be helpful, too. Also I would like to help with any problems that need arbitration or mediation
 * 2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?
 * A. I am definately proud of my page 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal (as mentioned above) as well as Sugar House and Downtown Salt Lake City. The scandal article was something I was surprised to find had only been written about in passing. It was also used as a "DYK" article a few days ago. The Sugar House and Downtown articles help flesh out the Salt Lake article and add to the volume of knowledge otherwise unknown outside of locally.
 * 3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and will deal with it in the future?
 * A. The greatest conflict I've been involved with was on the Salt Lake City, Utah page, when someone un-wikilinked various neighborhoods in Salt Lake City. At the time, there were only one or two neighborhood articles and I felt that dewikifying would not encourage these articles to be written. I went on to write and edit some of these, and now there are only two neighborhoods left unwritten about. I feel that conflicts should not degrade into flame wars. If you believe something should be a certain way, prove it. Actions speak louder than words. I felt we needed the neighborhood articles, so I did not just revert, but made sure to back it up with the needed articles. The archive of this discussion can been seen at Talk:Salt Lake City, Utah/Archive 1.


text:
Good Riddance (film)

Good Riddance (Les Bons débarras) is a 1980 French-language Canadian drama film. Directed by Francis Mankiewicz and written by Réjean Ducharme, the film concerns Manon (Charlotte Laurier), an unstable young girl who lives with her mother Michelle (Marie Tifo) and her alcoholic and intellectually disabled uncle Ti-Guy (Germain Houde).

Starting as the first screenplay by the novelist Ducharme, the film was shot by Mankiewicz and cinematographer Michel Brault on a low budget. It debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival and won several Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. It was established as a classic Canadian film, with the Toronto International Film Festival repeatedly placing it in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time.

Plot
Manon is a precocious 13-year-old girl living with her mother Michelle and intellectually challenged uncle Ti-Guy in the Laurentides. Manon wants to quit school and obtain the true love of her mother, whom she accuses of not loving her. Michelle is pregnant with the child of Maurice, a police officer who tries to convince her to give up caring for Ti-Guy, by placing him in an institution. Ti-Guy is frequently stealing from Michelle, drinking excessively, driving dangerously and stalking the family's wealthy female neighbour. Maurice also pressures Michelle to get an abortion. Michelle is determined to have the child, and insistent on keeping Ti-Guy with her.

Manon strongly dislikes Ti-Guy for his misbehavior and Maurice for being a cop, and when Michelle tells Manon of her pregnancy, Manon becomes upset. Manon prefers Gaetan, Michelle's former lover who gives her marijuana, and also steals the book Wuthering Heights from their neighbour and starts reading it.

On her birthday, Manon runs away for a time and phones her mother asking for her exclusive love, which Michelle takes as hurtful. After Manon comes back, she tells Michelle that Maurice molested her, at which point Michelle angrily chases Maurice away. Michelle consequently begins dining with Gaetan and Manon, with Manon promising to no longer hurt her. Confronting Ti-Guy in his vehicle, Manon screams at him and convinces him to commit suicide by crashing the vehicle. While sleeping with her mother, Manon receives Maurice's call about the death, but shields Michelle from the news.

Themes
There have been numerous interpretations of the film. Critic Ian Lockerbie suggested the film is an allegory for Quebec nationhood in the aftermath of the 1980 Quebec referendum, substituting nationalism for victimization. However, author Peter Morris replies English Canadian films were exploring similar themes at the time and that Les bons débarras was made before the referendum. Author Chris Gittings observes interpretations of Les bons débarras as symbolism of Quebec as being a victim of English Canada, and writes that the film depicts class inequality in Quebec society, given the impoverished state of Michelle's family.

Author Janis L. Pallister argues the film fits in Québécois cinema as introspective, and that it is about desire and envy and is in part psychological horror and political symbolism. Professor Claire Portelance, writing for Le Devoir, suggested the impoverished state of the family indicated the film's message was that the Quiet Revolution did not improve the lives of Quebeckers, and that many things still looked like the past.

Production
The screenplay was written by Quebecois novelist Réjean Ducharme, marking his first attempt at writing a film. It was shot by Francis Mankiewicz at an inexpensive cost of about $600,000 in a "Gothic" style creating "a sense of the menace of evil." Mankiewicz had selected Michel Brault as his cinematographer, aiming for a textured look without high contrasts. They also took inspiration from the paintings of Edward Hopper. Filming took place in 1979.

In 1981, Mankiewicz said the character of Manon symbolizes a romantic outlook, whereas Michelle was more realistic. "Manon is the filmmaker and Michelle is the everyday person in me. I am a dreamer," he said. The film was produced by Productions Prisma, based in Montreal.

Release
The film was first screened in the 30th Berlin International Film Festival in 1980. It subsequently had a release in France. As the film is in Canadian French, a survey found 48% of viewers in France had difficulty understanding it. It opened in Kentucky in October 1981. Les bons débarras was seen by more people than any French Canadian film since Mon oncle Antoine (1971), but it was later eclipsed by Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire (1986) and Jesus of Montreal (1989).

In 2013, the film was given a 4K resolution restoration by the Elephant project and Quebecor and screened at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, on 14 October 2014. The Elephant restoration subsequently screened in the classics section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic in July 2015.

Critical response
Good Riddance is widely considered one of the classic films in both Quebec and Canadian cinema. Don Haig of the National Film Board of Canada said it was considered "one of the great Quebecois films of all time." The Toronto International Film Festival ranked it in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time three times, in 1984, 1993 and 2004. In 1998, Take One named it as one of the 20 best Canadian films, writing "the kid is a dangerously compelling seductress who wreaks havoc out of a need to control those she loves." It was selected for preservation in 2006 by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada’s audio-visual heritage. In 2015, La Presse columnist Marc Cassivi named it one of Quebec's best films, saying Mankiewicz's intimate direction and Ducharme's poetic writing blended particularly well, citing Manon's speech about a flower growing out of her and her mother's blood.

The film received less favourable reviews in the United States. The New York Times called the film "a meandering movie with a curious kind of staying power." The Chicago Reader wrote "Mankiewicz possesses a dark, provocative sensibility, yet he isn't sufficiently in control of his medium to produce a coherent work out of his conflicting moods." Conversely, David Denby of New York wrote the Manon character was "a little monster" but heart-breaking, and that Jean Cocteau would have admired the film. William Mootz of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky wrote the film "has obviously been much admired in Canada, and with good reasons. It is a beautifully acted movie, filmed with an almost painful sincerity under the direction of Francis Mankiewicz."

Accolades
The film won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film, along with seven other Genies, including for best original screenplay. It was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 53rd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

title: Good Riddance (film)