Elections are held in Hong Kong when certain offices in the government need to be filled. Every four years, the unicameral Legislative Council of Hong Kong's sixty seats are filled by the electorate.
Hong Kong has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has the chance of gaining power alone. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is nonpartisan, but has to work with several parties to form (de facto) coalition governments.
Any Hong Kong permanent resident aged 18 or above may register as an elector, 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. Although the Government did not appeal against this judgment, it sought successfully a stay to enable legislative work to be done to remove the unconstitutionality. After consultations with the public, the Government decided that no person would be barred from electoral registration or voting because of criminal conviction, even for crimes against the electoral system. A bill to the effect was then introduced to the LegCo and passed on 24 June 2009, and enters into force starting 30 October 2009.
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Legislative Elections
The Legislative Council has 60 members, of whom 30 are elected by popular vote in geographical constituencies, and 30 elected from functional constituencies (businessmen and professionals).
In Hong Kong, legislative elections are held every four years, in years evenly divisible by four. The most recent election was held 7 September 2008. The next would presumably occur in September 2012, perhaps with some democratisation.
Electoral system
The 30 geographical seats of the Legislative Council are returned by proportional representation using the largest remainder method and the Hare quota in each of five constituencies. This system encourages and sustains multiple political parties.
There are 28 functional constituencies. Each is to return one Member with the first past the post method, with the following exceptions: The Labour functional constituency has three seats and electors are to choose up to 3 candidates. The three candidates getting the most votes win. Four other functional constituencies use the preferential elimination system, or instant-runoff voting.
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 405 constituencies for 2008, and nearly 7 million residents in Hong Kong. A member is elected from each constituency by the first-past-the-post system. The Chief Executive may appoint a set number of members to each council, totalling 102, and the chairpersons of the 27 rural committees are ex officio members of the councils.
Chief Executive elections
According to Article 46 of the constitution (Hong Kong Basic Law), elections for the Chief Executive are held every five years. An 800-member electoral college called the Election Committee is elected by businessmen and professionals (those eligible for functional constituencies, with less than 180 000 eligible voters), and some other sectors of the society, with each of the twenty-eight sectors of the economy 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.
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.
2005 Crisis
The last 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 (ie. 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 1997, Tung Chee Hwa was elected with eighty percent of the electoral votes against two other candidates, Mr. Peter Woo (吳光正) and Sir Ti Liang Yang (楊鐵樑). In 2002, Tung was reelected 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 election 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 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2005 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.
Elections of deputies to the National People's Congress of the PRC
The Basic Law of HKSAR stipulates in Article 21:
<quote>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, the Chinese citizens among the 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.</quote>
There are 36 Hong Kong deputies to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), chosen by an electoral college composed of the following:
- Members of the previous electoral college that had elected the Hong Kong deputies to the 10th NPC;
- Hong Kong delegates of the 10th Chinese People's Political Consultation Committee;
- 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;
Village Representative elections
The Court of Final Appeal ruled 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
(i) Indigenous Inhabitant Representative representing indigenous inhabitants* of an Indigenous Village; and
(ii) Resident Representative representing all residents of an Existing Village
- Indigenous Inhabitant—in relation to an Indigenous Village that existed in 1898 (whether or not the name the Village now has is the same name it had in 1898) means
(i) a person who was in 1898 a resident of the Village; or
(ii) a person who is descended through the male line from a person mentioned in (i).
The first new arrangements Village Representative elections was held in 2003. The next Village Representative elections were held in 2007.
Latest elections
2007 Chief Executive election
| English Name | Chinese Name | Position | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Tsang | 曾蔭權 | Incumbent Chief Executive | 649 |
| Alan Leong | 梁家傑 | Civic Party legislator | 123 |
2008 Legislative election
| Parties | Votes | % | Geographical constituencies |
Functional constituencies |
Total seats | +/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pan-Democrats | Democratic Party | 312,692 | 20.63% | 7 | 1 | 8 | −1 |
| Civic Party | 206,980 | 13.66% | 4 | 1 | 5 | N/A | |
| League of Social Democrats | 153,390 | 10.1% | 3 | 0 | 3 | N/A | |
| Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre of Senators | 42,441 | 2.8% | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions | 42,366 | 2.8% | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood | 42,211 | 2.79% | 1 | 1 | 2 | +1 | |
| The Frontier | 33,205 | 2.19% | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Civic Act-up | 30,887 | 2.04% | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | |
| Pro-democracy individuals and others | 5,293 | 0.35% | 0 | 1 | 1 | −3 | |
| Total for pan-democrats | 869,465 | 57.37% (58.99%) | 19 | 4 | 23 | -2 | |
| Pro-Beijing | Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong | 453,598 | 29.93% | 9 | 4 | 13[1] | +3 |
| Liberal Party | 65,622 | 4.33% | 0 | 7 | 7[2][3] | −3 | |
| Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions | 0 | 0% | 0 | 1 | 1[1] | -2 | |
| The Alliance (Hong Kong) | 0 | 0% | 0 | 3 | 3 | N/A | |
| Pro-Beijing individuals and others | 85,531 | 5.64% | 1 | 9 | 10 | -2 | |
| Total for pro-Beijing camp | 604,751 | 39.90% (41.01%) | 10 | 24 | 34 | -1 | |
| Independent | Councillors without formal affiliation with any political party | 61,177 | 4.04% | 1 | 2 | 3 | +3 |
| Total (turnout 45%) | 1,515,479 | 100.0 | 30 | 30 | 60 | ||
| Source: Hong Kong government | |||||||
| Note: Candidates in 14 functional constituencies were elected uncontested to the Legislative Council. The number of seats for the Federation of Trade Unions in the geographical constituencies exclude Wong Kwok-hing, Wong Kwok-kin and Pan Pey Chyou, who are also DAB members; figures in parentheses in the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing total percentage exclude all votes of other individuals. | |||||||
Past elections
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By-elections
- Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007
- Hong Kong Island by-election, 2000
- Kowloon Central by-election, 1995
- New Territories West by-election, 1992
- New Territories West by-election, 1991
See also
References
- ^ a b "民建聯13席 續成第一大黨" (in Traditional Chinese). Wen Wei Po. 8 September 2008. http://paper.wenweipo.com/2008/09/09/YO0809090004.htm. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
- ^ Ambrose Leung (12 September 2008). "Heung Yee Kuk chairman quits Liberal Party". South China Morning Post.
- ^ Ambrose Leung (9 October 2008). "And then there were three: Legco Liberals quit over leadership fight". South China Morning Post.
External links
- Hong Kong Government Website
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Elections in Hong Kong/ Roland Nicholson, Jr.
- Previous election results by Lingnan University
- Official site for the 2004 LegCo elections
- Web Site of the Electoral Affairs Commission
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