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All 70 seats to the Legislative Council 36 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 3,779,085 (GC)9.03% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 2,202,283 (58.28%) [1] 5.23pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 4 September 2016 for the 6th Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). A total of 70 members, 35 from geographical constituencies (GCs) and 35 from functional constituencies (FCs), were returned. The election came after the rejection of the 2016/2017 constitutional reform proposals which suggested the electoral method for the 2016 Legislative Council remains unchanged.
An unprecedented number of 2.2 million voters, 58 per cent of the registered electorate, turned out in the wake of the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy movement often dubbed as the "Umbrella Revolution" with the localists emerged as a new political force behind the pro-Beijing and pan-democracy camps by winning six seats in the geographical constituencies and gaining nearly 20 per cent of the vote share. [2] Many new faces rose from the post-Occupy political forces got elected which was described as the "youthquake" by the media. [3] [4] Demosisto's Nathan Law, a 23-year-old Occupy student leader became the youngest candidate to be elected in history along with his allies Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu.
Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching from the radical localist groups Youngspiration, and Cheng Chung-tai of Civic Passion, also won seats after they were allowed to enter the race following the government controversially disqualifying six localists for their advocacy of Hong Kong independence. [3] As a result, four pan-democrats lost their seats, namely, Neo Democrats' Gary Fan, as well as three veterans, Lee Cheuk-yan and Cyd Ho of the Labour Party and Frederick Fung of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood.
Many veteran pro-Beijing incumbents, including the LegCo president Jasper Tsang, also Chan Kam-lam and Tam Yiu-chung of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong's (DAB) and Chan Yuen-han of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) decided to step down, while pan-democrat heavyweights, including Civic Party leader Alan Leong, Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau and veterans Albert Ho and Sin Chung-kai, as well as pro-Beijing Liberal Party honorary chairman James Tien, chose to stand as second candidate to get their party's newcomers elected. Young Democrat Kwong Chun-yu received the most votes by winning nearly 500,000 votes in the District Council (Second) "super seat".
Together with the six post-Occupy radicals and localists, the anti-establishment forces won 29 out of 70 seats; managed to retain the majority in the geographical constituencies to block the pro-establishment camp's attempt to amend the rule of procedures to curb radicals' filibustering, as well as the opposition's crucial one-thirds minority to maintain the veto power on government's constitutional reform proposals.
These were the last fully free legislative elections to be held in Hong Kong prior to the national security law that was implemented in 2020.
The election comes after the rejection of constitutional reform proposals of the Leung Chun-ying administration in mid-2015 meant the electoral method for the Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2016 was unchanged. [5] On 31 August 2014, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) set limits for the 2016 Legislative Council and 2017 Chief Executive elections. While reaffirming the electoral method for the 2016 Legislative Council election remained unchanged, the 2014 NPCSC decision allowed the Chief Executive (CE) to be directly elected but "unpatriotic" candidates would have to be screened out by a Beijing-controlled nominating committee. [6] In response to the NPCSC decision, the student activists staged a class boycott which led into a months-long large-scale occupy movement as proposed by the Occupy Central, which was referred as the "Umbrella Revolution". [7] [8]
The government proposals were overwhelmingly rejected in the Legislative Council following a failed walk-out by the pro-Beijing camp on 18 June 2015. In response, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged the voters to "punish" the opposition democratic candidates by voting them out in the upcoming legislative election. [9]
The emergence of new political groups led by young activists began to influence the political landscape: Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous, a pro-independence localist group, received a better-than expected result in the New Territories East by-election in February 2016 by taking more than 66,000 votes and gaining about 15 percent of the total votes. After the election, Edward Leung claimed localism had become the third most important power grouping in Hong Kong politics alongside the pan-democracy and pro-Beijing camps. [10] A day after the election, three localist groups, Wong Yuk-man's Proletariat Political Institute, Wong Yeung-tat's Civic Passion and Chin Wan's Hong Kong Resurgence Order, announced to run in the upcoming election. [11]
On 10 April 2016, six localist groups which emerged after the 2014 Umbrella Revolution, Youngspiration, Kowloon East Community, Tin Shui Wai New Force, Cheung Sha Wan Community Establishment Power, Tsz Wan Shan Constructive Power and Tuen Mun Community, formed an electoral alliance under the name "ALLinHK" planned to field candidates in four of the five geographical constituencies with the agenda to put forward a referendum on Hong Kong's self-determination, while Hong Kong Indigenous and another new pro-independence Hong Kong National Party also stated that they would run in the upcoming election. [12]
Also on 10 April 2016, the student leaders in the Umbrella Revolution, Joshua Wong, Oscar Lai and Agnes Chow of Scholarism and Nathan Law of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) formed a new party called Demosistō and aimed to field candidates in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East. [13] The new party calls for referendum on Hong Kong's future after 2047 when the one country, two systems is supposed to expire. [14]
Ronny Tong's Path of Democracy and Tik Chi-yuen's Third Side, the two new political groups which split from the Civic Party and Democratic Party respectively, seek a middle path between the pro-Beijing camp and pan-democracy camp on achieving democracy, with plans to field candidates in the geographical constituency election.
Political scientist Professor Ma Ngok believed the soaring number of political groups and candidates, which was the reflection of the increasing fragmentation of the pro-democracy camp, might split the pro-democracy votes. [15]
In early 2016, Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai, who was inspired by the electoral victory the Democratic Progressive Party received in the 2016 Taiwan legislative election, mapped out a "ThunderGo plan" for pan-democrats to grab half of the seats in the Legislative Council election to increase political leverage in future political reform. He suggests the anti-establishment forces to field no more than 23 lists if their goal was to win 23 seats in the geographical constituencies, six tickets for nine-seat New Territories West and New Territories East, four tickets for six-seat Hong Kong Island and Kowloon West, and three for five-seat Kowloon East respectively. [16] For the functional constituencies, Tai suggested that besides retaining the current six trade-based functional constituencies and three territory-wide directly elected District Council (Second) super seats, the camp needs to target three additional seats in Medical, Engineering and Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape. [16] The plan met with reservations from the very diverse interests within pro-democracy political parties, who could not agree on a united front. Tai's plan hit its setback when the Neo Democrats decided not to support the proposed coordinating mechanism for the District Council (Second) super seats in May. [16] [17]
Tai also worked on a "smart voters" system involving 25,000 voters who would indicate their preferences on an interactive poll via Telegram and would be informed of the popularity of candidates according to polls the day before the official vote and which would be updated through exit polling two and a half hours before polls closed. Such "smart voters" would delay voting until 8 pm and then be signalled to support candidates whose numbers were weaker instead wasting votes on stronger candidates who were already through. [18]
The pan-democracy camp campaigned to block Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, whose popularity dropped to a new low, from serving a second term. Technology and media entrepreneur Ricky Wong Wai-kay, whose Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) free-to-air television licence was denied by Leung's Executive Council in October 2013 and sparked public uproar and protests, also started his "ABC campaign" (Anyone but CY) by announcing Leung's exit as his key campaign platform. [19] Wong was backed by the Liberal Party, a pro-Beijing party representing the business sector which had been at odds with the Chief Executive since the 2012 Chief Executive election when the Liberals openly opposed Leung.
On 28 July, President of the Legislative Council Jasper Tsang and Financial Secretary John Tsang both expressed interest in running for the Chief Executive in 2017 on different occasions. Political analysts said that the duo's moves would take some pressure off pro-Beijing camp preparing for the Legislative Council election as pro-Beijing candidates had struggled when asked in public if they supported Leung's re-election. [20]
Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Causeway Bay booksellers who went missing from October 2015 returned to Hong Kong and revealed at a press conference in June 2016 that he was kidnapped at the China–Hong Kong border in October and put through eight months of mental torture. The controversy ignited fears that mainland law enforcement officers might have acted within the territory of Hong Kong and shook Hong Kong's confidence in the one country, two systems. Professor Lau Siu-kai, former head of the Hong Kong government's think tank, the Central Policy Unit, worried that more people might vote for pan-democracy camp in September's election. [21]
In July, acting head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Rebecca Li Bo-lan resigned after she was removed from her position by ICAC commissioner Simon Peh Yun-lu, less than a year after he appointed her. The rare move amid speculation that Li was removed over an investigation into Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's receipt of HK$50 million from Australian firm UGL. [22] Less than a week later, long-serving ICAC principal investigator Dale Ko also resigned without any meaningful official explanation. The controversy sparked calls for a special Legislative Council investigation and raised fears about the reputation of the anti-corruption body. [23]
On 14 July 2016 the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) announced its plan to require all candidates to sign an additional "confirmation form" in the nomination to declare their understanding of Hong Kong being an inalienable part of China as stipulated in the Basic Law, in response to many potential localist candidates advocating or promoting Hong Kong independence. The EAC states that anyone making a false declaration in the nomination form was liable to criminal sanction. [24]
EAC returning officers also sent emails to several applicants who had not been confirmed as official candidates, including Hong Kong Indigenous' Edward Leung, Civic Passion's Alvin Cheng, Hong Kong National Party's Chan Ho-tin, to ask whether they would still advocate independence after submitting the nomination form. [25] Those questions were claimed to be a factor to determine the validity of their nominations.
After the end of the nomination period, six localist candidates received emails from the EAC which said their nominations were "invalidated", which included Chan Ho-tin, Democratic Progressive Party's Yeung Ke-cheong, Nationalist Hong Kong's Nakade Hitsujiko, Conservative Party's Alice Lai Yee-man, Hong Kong Indigenous' Edward Leung and independent Chan Kwok-keung, although many of them had signed the additional confirmation form; all except Yeung had signed the declaration statement in the nomination form saying they would "uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR" as required by the Legislative Council Ordinance. New Territories East constituency returning officer Cora Ho Lai-sheung rejected Edward Leung's nomination on the basis that she did not trust Leung "genuinely changed his previous stance for independence." [26] [27]
An unprecedented number of 289 validly nominated candidates contested in the election, two more than the previous election, after seven candidates were disqualified, six of whom due to their pro-independence stance, and two withdrew their candidatures. 84 lists with a total of 213 candidates contested the 35 geographical constituencies, while 55 candidates contested in the traditional functional constituencies, 43 of them ran for 18 seats in the functional constituencies. A total of 21 candidates belonging to 9 lists contested the five "super seats" in the District Council (Second) functional constituency. [28]
Many political parties and groups and individuals formed strategic alliances in the campaign. Alvin Yeung of the Civic Party who led in the opinion polls in the New Territories East cooperated with Labour Party's Fernando Cheung who traced behind in the polls. Leung Yiu-chung of the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre (NWSC) who ran in the territory-wide District Council (Second) "super seat" also had joint-promotional leaflets with Lau Siu-lai of Democracy Groundwork in Kowloon West. Liberal Party honorary chairman James Tien who was running in the New Territories East and "middle-of-the-road" politician Ricky Wong Wai-kay who aimed at the last seat in Hong Kong Island also went out of their constituencies and campaigned for each other. James Tien also campaigned for the "middle-of-the-road" party Third Side's Tik Chi-yuen who aimed at the last seat in Kowloon West against Yau Wai-ching of the localist group Youngspiration. [56] On 15 August, it was reported that volunteers and staff from Kowloon West New Dynamic chaired by pro-Beijing politician Priscilla Leung helped Tik arrange a meet-the-public event in Sham Shui Po. [57]
In the District Council (Second) constituency, the Democratic Party also asked the supporters of veteran James To who led in the polls to vote for another Democrat candidate Kwong Chun-yu who was fighting for the last seat against Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) candidate Holden Chow. [58] The Democratic Party invited former Chief Secretary Anson Chan to back Kwong, who also endorsed Civic Party's Sumly Chan who ran in the same constituency. [59]
In late August, the pro-Beijing parties also began to campaign for each other. DAB District Council (Second) candidate Holden Chow campaigned for New People's Party (NPP) New Territories East candidate Eunice Yung who was behind in the opinion polls, in exchange for the 24 NPP New Territories district councillors to campaign for Chow. Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) District Council (Second) candidate Wong Kwok-hing also campaigned with Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) Kowloon West candidate Priscilla Leung, the only constituency where the FTU did not field their candidate. [60]
Issues including Hong Kong independence, filibustering, universal retirement protection scheme, standard working hours and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's administration and re-election took central stage at the election forums. Pro-Beijing candidates questioned pan-democrat parties' stance on Hong Kong independence, while localist Kowloon East Community's Chan Chak-to declared his support for independence at the TVB Kowloon East electoral forum despite six pro-independence candidates had been disqualified. Localist candidates exchanged criticisms with the pan-democrats as the pan-democrat candidates dismissed localists' pro-independence call as empty talk. [61]
The pro-Beijing candidates also accused the pan-democrats of their filibustering and obstructionism in the Legislative Council, while pan-democrat candidates attacked the pro-Beijing candidates did not push for a more progressive universal retirement protection scheme and standard working hours policies. The pan-democrats also criticised the pro-Beijing camp being allies of the Leung Chun-ying government and opposed to use Powers and Privileges Ordinance to investigate into Leung's receipt of HK$50 million from UGL Limited and resignations of ICAC heads.
On 25 August, Liberal Party's Ken Chow Wing-kan who ran for New Territories West announced he would stop his electioneering at the Cable TV election forum for fear of "people close to him paying a heavy price". He earlier revealed that he was approached by a middleman to quit the race for a hefty sum of money. [62] Chow passed a voice clip to the media before the election forum, in which a man claimed he would bring 20 to 30 Ho supporters to "pursue" Chow before and after the forum so that he would "lose mood" for the debate. The man in the clip also said the supporters should wear another candidate Lawyer Junius Ho’s vests during the forum. [63] Ho denied having any plans to intimidate Chow and claimed he had rejected one of his supporters' proposal to "pursue" Chow. [64]
On 2 September less than 48 hours before the election day and after the release of the large-scale opinion poll conducted by University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (HKUPOP) and sponsored by pro-democracy group Power for Democracy, five pro-democrat candidates, independents Paul Zimmerman and Chui Chi-kin in Hong Kong Island, Labour Party's Suzanne Wu in Kowloon East and Civic Party's Sumly Chan and Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood's (ADPL) Kalvin Ho in District Council (Second), suspended their campaigns in the hope of deflecting support to fellow pan-democrats who were seen as standing a better chance. [65] Clarice Cheung Wai-ching, a non-aligned independent also abandoned her campaign in New Territories West and called her supporters to vote for pan-democrat candidates. On 3 September, the third pro-democratic District Council (Second) candidate Kwan Wing-yip also aborted his campaign but marked it as "a dark day for democracy". [66]
The reliability of the rolling poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (HKUPOP) was widely questioned. The sample size of the poll, fewer than 300 respondents in each of the five geographical constituencies each day, was criticised as being too small. Additionally, pollsters only mentioned the first candidate on the list during interviews which could have made a difference in the results, as many veterans, including Democrats Sin Chung-kai, Albert Ho and Emily Lau, Liberal James Tien, Civic Party's Alan Leong, and People Power Albert Chan, stood in the second place behind the new faces on their party lists while their lists continued to trail behind in the polls. [58] After the complaints, the HKUPOP decided to mention two candidates on the candidate list to respondents from 22 August night onwards. [67]
Before election:
27 | 1 | 42 |
Anti-establishment (pro-democrats & localists) | Pro-establishment |
Change in composition:
29 | 1 | 40 |
Anti-establishment (pro-democrats & localists) | Pro-establishment |
Political affiliation | Geographical Constituencies | Traditional Functional Constituencies | District Council (Second) FC | Total seats | ± | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | ±pp | Seats | Votes | % | ±pp | Seats | Votes | % | ±pp | Seats | ||||||
DAB | 361,617 | 16.68 | 3.54 | 7 | 98 | 0.06 | 0.01 | 3 | 568,561 | 29.77 | 0.19 | 2 | 12 | 1 | |||
BPA | 49,745 | 2.29 | N/A | 1 | 4,622 | 2.76 | N/A | 6 | - | - | - | - | 7 | 0 | |||
FTU | 169,854 | 7.83 | 0.77 | 3 | - | - | - | 2 | 233,236 | 12.11 | 3.36 | 0 | 5 | 1 | |||
Liberal | 21,500 | 0.99 | 1.70 | 0 | 6,381 | 3.82 | 3.06 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 4 | 1 | |||
NPP | 167,589 | 7.73 | 3.97 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | |||
FLU | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | |||
New Forum | - | - | - | - | 1,389 | 0.83 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | |||
Pro-Beijing others | 100,711 | 4.64 | N/A | 2 | 40,255 | 24.07 | N/A | 5 | - | - | - | - | 7 | 1 | |||
Total for pro-Beijing camp | 871,016 | 40.17 | 2.49 | 16 | 52,745 | 31.54 | 4.62 | 22 | 801,797 | 41.98 | 3.45 | 2 | 40 | 3 | |||
Democratic | 199,876 | 9.22 | 4.43 | 5 | 1,231 | 0.74 | 0.29 | 0 | 735,597 | 38.51 | 4.25 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |||
Civic | 207,885 | 9.59 | 4.49 | 5 | 3,405 | 2.04 | 1.11 | 1 | 28,311 | 1.48 | N/A | 0 | 6 | 0 | |||
PP–LSD | 156,019 | 7.20 | 7.39 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | |||
Professional Commons | - | - | - | - | 18,384 | 10.99 | N/A | 2 | - | - | - | - | 2 | 0 | |||
Labour | 101,860 | 4.70 | 1.49 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 3 | |||
NWSC | 20,974 | 0.97 | 1.45 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 303,457 | 15.89 | N/A | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
PTU | - | - | - | - | 45,984 | 27.49 | 5.28 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | |||
ADPL | 33,255 | 1.53 | 0.16 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 17,175 | 0.90 | 15.57 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
Neo Democrats | 31,595 | 1.46 | 0.12 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 23,631 | 1.24 | N/A | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
Other democrats | 29,704 | 1.37 | N/A | 0 | 29,895 | 17.87 | N/A | 3 | - | - | - | - | 3 | 2 | |||
Total for pan-democrats | 781,168 | 36.02 | 20.14 | 13 | 98,899 | 59.13 | 3.15 | 7 | 1,108,171 | 58.02 | 7.29 | 3 | 23 | 3 | |||
ALLinHK | 81,422 | 3.75 | New | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | |||
CP–PPI–HKRO | 154,176 | 7.11 | N/A | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | |||
Demosistō | 50,818 | 2.34 | New | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | |||
Democracy Groundwork | 38,183 | 1.76 | New | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | |||
Other localists | 87,294 | 4.03 | N/A | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | |||
Total for localists | 411,893 | 19.00 | - | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6 | 5 | |||
Path of Democracy | 18,112 | 0.84 | New | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | |||
Third Side | 13,461 | 0.62 | New | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | |||
Non-aligned independents | 72,761 | 3.36 | N/A | 0 | 15,613 | 9.33 | N/A | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | |||
Total for non-aligned others | 104,334 | 4.81 | 3.71 | 0 | 15,613 | 9.33 | 7.78 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | |||
Total | 2,168,411 | 100.00 | 35 | 167,257 | 100.00 | 30 | 1,909,968 | 100.00 | 5 | 70 | - | ||||||
Valid votes | 2,167,411 | 98.42 | 0.04 | 167,257 | 96.78 | 2.81 | 1,909,968 | 96.31 | 1.15 | ||||||||
Invalid votes | 34,872 | 1.58 | 0.04 | 5,563 | 3.22 | 2.81 | 73,081 | 3.72 | 1.15 | ||||||||
Votes cast / turnout | 2,202,283 | 58.28 | 4.97 | 172,820 | 74.33 | 4.68 | 1,983,049 | 57.09 | 5.14 | ||||||||
Registered voters | 3,779,085 | 100.00 | 9.03 | 232,498 | 100.00 | 7.15 | 3,473,792 | 100.00 | 7.89 |
District | DAB | FTU | NPP | Pro-est. Total | Civ | DP | PP LSD | Lab | CP PPI RO | AHK | D+ allies | Anti-est. Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Central & Western | 15.01 | 8.65 | 15.28 | 39.77 | 9.15 | 14.21 | 1.46 | 4.29 | 4.65 | - | 13.85 | 48.55 |
Wan Chai | 11.17 | 8.09 | 21.33 | 41.47 | 10.02 | 10.78 | 1.49 | 4.65 | 4.46 | - | 12.99 | 45.35 |
Eastern | 9.65 | 14.70 | 15.12 | 41.47 | 9.49 | 9.74 | 2.11 | 5.87 | 6.52 | - | 13.29 | 47.75 |
Southern | 10.55 | 11.30 | 16.47 | 38.95 | 9.08 | 12.80 | 2.13 | 4.41 | 6.59 | - | 13.94 | 49.97 |
Hong Kong Island | 10.93 | 12.20 | 16.13 | 39.95 | 9.40 | 11.29 | 1.93 | 5.15 | 5.99 | - | 13.49 | 48.10 |
Yau Tsim Mong | 21.26 | - | - | 37.35 | 12.70 | 10.67 | 2.34 | - | 7.35 | 7.41 | 14.07 | 57.46 |
Sham Shui Po | 17.66 | - | - | 35.34 | 10.80 | 7.67 | 2.61 | - | 7.49 | 7.00 | 13.50 | 60.22 |
Kowloon City | 18.49 | - | - | 38.43 | 11.67 | 10.13 | 2.34 | - | 6.96 | 7.79 | 13.64 | 56.60 |
Kowloon West | 18.84 | - | - | 37.01 | 11.59 | 9.34 | 2.44 | - | 7.25 | 7.40 | 13.69 | 58.16 |
Wong Tai Sin | 12.34 | 16.85 | - | 42.66 | 13.34 | 17.50 | 9.85 | 0.82 | 10.60 | 3.61 | - | 57.34 |
Kwun Tong | 17.98 | 12.65 | - | 47.03 | 14.12 | 13.75 | 9.55 | 0.73 | 9.78 | 4.12 | - | 52.97 |
Kowloon East | 15.66 | 14.38 | - | 45.23 | 13.80 | 15.29 | 9.67 | 0.77 | 10.11 | 3.91 | - | 54.77 |
Tsuen Wan | 20.03 | 5.80 | 14.30 | 45.04 | 10.63 | 5.79 | 5.06 | 4.72 | 7.66 | 1.29 | 13.07 | 54.71 |
Tuen Mun | 13.32 | 8.68 | 12.95 | 42.45 | 6.29 | 7.92 | 4.72 | 5.22 | 10.60 | 1.47 | 14.97 | 57.31 |
Yuen Long | 19.34 | 7.03 | 11.77 | 46.69 | 5.60 | 4.88 | 4.71 | 5.74 | 9.56 | 1.97 | 16.10 | 53.08 |
Kwai Tsing | 19.08 | 9.90 | 9.40 | 42.68 | 6.65 | 9.06 | 4.49 | 4.48 | 8.04 | 1.74 | 10.99 | 56.50 |
Islands | 21.37 | 11.08 | 9.58 | 47.21 | 8.34 | 5.61 | 5.00 | 3.75 | 8.32 | 1.39 | 15.28 | 52.50 |
New Territories West | 18.04 | 8.23 | 11.71 | 44.37 | 7.02 | 6.91 | 4.73 | 5.00 | 9.03 | 1.65 | 13.94 | 55.24 |
North | 23.79 | 5.34 | 3.17 | 39.61 | 7.89 | 8.59 | 13.33 | 7.32 | 4.11 | 8.26 | - | 55.73 |
Tai Po | 21.66 | 4.09 | 4.09 | 34.63 | 9.05 | 5.99 | 14.52 | 8.53 | 4.44 | 6.81 | - | 60.19 |
Sai Kung | 16.53 | 4.79 | 5.44 | 31.01 | 9.07 | 5.00 | 13.61 | 7.13 | 4.02 | 6.12 | - | 55.04 |
Sha Tin | 16.20 | 4.49 | 8.98 | 34.77 | 9.48 | 7.49 | 14.44 | 10.06 | 3.92 | 5.98 | - | 59.68 |
New Territories East | 18.53 | 4.64 | 6.23 | 34.60 | 9.03 | 6.77 | 14.05 | 8.58 | 4.07 | 6.55 | - | 57.92 |
Total | 16.68 | 7.83 | 7.73 | 40.17 | 9.59 | 9.22 | 7.20 | 4.70 | 7.11 | 3.75 | 7.17 | 55.02 |
Fifteen incumbents lost re-election.
Party | Name | Constituency | Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|---|
ADPL (1) | Frederick Fung | District Council (Second) | Ran in New Territories West. | |
Civic (1) | Alan Leong | Kowloon East | Stood as second candidate. | |
DAB (1) | Christopher Chung | Hong Kong Island | Stood as second candidate. | |
Democratic (3) | Albert Ho | District Council (Second) | Ran in New Territories West; stood as second candidate. | |
Emily Lau | New Territories East | Stood as second candidate. | ||
Sin Chung-kai | Hong Kong Island | Stood as second candidate. | ||
FTU (2) | Tang Ka-piu | Labour | Ran in New Territories East. | |
Wong Kwok-hing | Hong Kong Island | Ran in District Council (Second). | ||
Labour (2) | Cyd Ho | Hong Kong Island | ||
Lee Cheuk-yan | New Territories West | |||
Liberal (1) | James Tien | New Territories East | Stood as second candidate. | |
Neo Democrats (1) | Gary Fan | New Territories East | ||
People Power (1) | Albert Chan | New Territories West | Stood as second candidate. | |
PPI (1) | Wong Yuk-man | Kowloon West | ||
Independent (1) | Tony Tse | Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape | ||
A unprecedented number of 2.2 million voters cast their votes, which composed of 58 per cent of the total electorate. Many voters queued outside the polling stations even after polling stations were due to close at 10:30 pm and a polling station in Taikoo Shing, the last vote was cast at almost 2:30am. [68] the anti-establishment forces, including the pan-democrats and the localists, won 29 out of 70 seats; managed to retain the majority in the geographical constituencies to block the pro-Beijing camp's attempt to amend the rule of procedures to curb radicals' filibustering and the opposition's crucial one-thirds minority to maintain the veto power on government's constitutional reform proposal.
The localists, six backers of self-determination for Hong Kong, including Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the post-Occupy group Youngspiration, Occupy student leader Nathan Law of the Demosisto, who became the youngest ever candidate to be elected, Polytechnic University lecturer Lau Siu-lai, Eddie Chu, were returned in the geographical constituencies, securing of nearly 20 per cent of the vote share. [2] Eddie Chu, a social activist and environmentalist, bagged more than 84,000 votes, the highest votes received in the geographical constituencies, without any party backing in New Territories West, leading the first runner-up, New People's Party's Michael Tien by about 13,000 votes. His allies, Nathan Law and Lau Siu-lai also became the pro-democrats which received the highest votes in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon West. The three took a total of 173,122 votes. [69] For the ardently localist faction, Baggio Leung, leader of Youngspiration won in New Territories East after his ally, Hong Kong Indigenous' Edward Leung was barred from poll while Yau Wai-ching won last seat in Kowloon West by about 400 votes at the expense of veteran Wong Yuk-man of the Proletariat Political Institute. Wong's ally, Civic Passion leader Wong Yeung-tat also lost in his second bid in Kowloon East. Only Cheng Chung-tai from the electoral alliance won a seat in the New Territories West.
The pan-democrats saw their big names losing, including Labour Party's Lee Cheuk-yan and Cyd Ho and Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood's (ADPL) Frederick Fung. As a result, ADPL and Neo Democrats were ousted from the legislature while Labour retained only one seat. Benny Tai's ThunderGo plan was blamed as he released on the election day a list of recommended pro-democratic candidates based on pre-polling. It drew the voters to vote for the candidates who were on the brink of losing as shown in the polls from other candidates, which resulted in highest votes received by Eddie Chu, Lau Siu-lai and Nathan Law at other veteran democrats' expenses. Kwong Chun-yu, a Democratic Party young candidate in the District Council (Second) "super seat" who was also tracing behind in the polls received the highest votes of nearly 500,000 votes as a result, while the former "King of Votes", veteran Democrat James To who had led in the polls for weeks faced a tough battle with pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions's (FTU) Wong Kwok-hing for the last of the five "super seats". To secure the third seat for the pan-democrats with a thin margin of 10,694 votes. [70] By putting themselves on the second place in their candidate lists, the veteran Democrats also managed to help their young colleagues to be elected, which made the Democratic Party the largest pro-democratic party again, overtaking the Civic Party. The pro-democrats retained their six out of nine seats in New Territories East, with both radical democrats, Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) and Chan Chi-chuen of the People Power retained their seats despite the overcrowding of the pro-democratic tickets. Leung, who took the last seat in the New Territories East by the margin of only 1,051 votes.
The pan-democrats also boost their functional constituency seats to 10. Besides retaining the pan-democrats' traditional strongholds including Legal and Education, as well as Kenneth Leung's Accountancy and Charles Mok's Information Technology, pan-democrat Edward Yiu made a surprise victory in Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape, defeating incumbent pro-Beijing Tony Tse who became the only incumbent who lost in the functional constituencies. The pro-Beijing camp remained dominant in the functional constituencies. The pro-business Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) dominated in the functional constituencies by retaining six seats as well as Priscilla Leung's seat in Kowloon West. The Liberal Party came second by retaining the four functional constituency despite Joseph Chan's unsuccessful challenge against BPA's Jeffrey Lam in Commercial (First) and Dominic Lee's failed bid in New Territories East. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) maintained its status as the largest party by winning 12 seats in total, one seat fewer than the previous election, while Regina Ip's New People's Party took one extra seat in New Territories East with a young barrister Eunice Yung who was supported by the Liaison Office. Another pro-Beijing candidate supported by the Liaison Office, independent lawyer Junius Ho, also won the last seat in New Territories West against Lee Cheuk-yan. [71]
The nominations received and validated by the Electoral Affairs Commission listed as following: [72]
Voting system: Party-list proportional representation with largest remainder method and Hare quota.
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Voting system: Party-list proportional representation with largest remainder method and Hare quota.
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Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance and Transport, the preferential elimination system of voting was used; and for the remaining 24 FCs the first-past-the-post voting system. [73]
Constituency | Incumbent | Result | Candidate(s) | Votes | Votes % | ||
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Heung Yee Kuk | Lau Wong-fat (BPA) | Incumbent retired BPA hold | Kenneth Lau Ip-keung (BPA) | uncontested | |||
Agriculture and Fisheries | Steven Ho Chun-yin (DAB) | Incumbent hold | Steven Ho Chun-yin (DAB) | 98 | 73.68 | ||
Wong Yung-kan (Nonpartisan) | 35 | 26.32 | |||||
Insurance | Chan Kin-por (Independent) | Incumbent hold | Chan Kin-por (Independent) | uncontested | |||
Transport | Frankie Yick Chi-ming (Liberal) | Incumbent hold | Frankie Yick Chi-ming (Liberal) | 127 | 75.15 | ||
Yau Ying-wah (Nonpartisan) | 42 | 24.84 | |||||
Education | Ip Kin-yuen (PTU) | Incumbent hold | Ip Kin-yuen (PTU) | 45,984 | 71.69 | ||
Choi Yuk-lin (Nonpartisan) | 18,158 | 28.31 | |||||
Legal | Dennis Kwok Wing-hang (Civic) | Incumbent hold | Dennis Kwok Wing-hang (Civic) | 3,405 | 69.48 | ||
Catherine Mun Lee-ming (Nonpartisan) | 1,496 | 30.52 | |||||
Accountancy | Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong (PC) | Incumbent hold | Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong (PC) | 12,131 | 63.96 | ||
Kenneth Chen Yung-ngai (Independent) | 6,836 | 36.04 | |||||
Medical | Leung Ka-lau (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent retired Nonpartisan gain | Pierre Chan (Nonpartisan) | 5,626 | 71.44 | ||
Wong Yee-him (Nonpartisan) | 2,249 | 28.56 | |||||
Health Services | Joseph Lee Kok-long (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent hold | Joseph Lee Kok-long (Nonpartisan) | 15,221 | 61.75 | ||
Philip Choi Pui-wah (Nonpartisan) | 9,430 | 38.25 | |||||
Engineering | Lo Wai-kwok (BPA) | Incumbent hold | Lo Wai-kwok (BPA) | 3,906 | 55.47 | ||
Louis Ching Ming-tat (Independent) | 2,097 | 29.78 | |||||
John Luk Wang-kwong (Nonpartisan) | 1,039 | 14.75 | |||||
Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape | Tony Tse Wai-chuen (Independent) | Incumbent lost re-election Nonpartisan gain | Yiu Chung-yim (Nonpartisan) | 2,491 | 43.44 | ||
Tony Tse Wai-chuen (Independent) | 2,009 | 35.03 | |||||
Bernard Vincent Lim Wan-fung (Nonpartisan) | 1,235 | 21.53 | |||||
Labour (3 seats) | Poon Siu-ping (FLU) | Incumbent hold | Poon Siu-ping (FLU) | uncontested | |||
Kwok Wai-keung (FTU) | Incumbent running for HKI GC FTU hold | Ho Kai-ming (FTU) | uncontested | ||||
Tang Ka-piu (FTU) | Incumbent running for NTE GC FTU hold | Luk Chung-hung (FTU) | uncontested | ||||
Social Welfare | Cheung Kwok-che (SWGU/Labour) | Incumbent retired Independent gain | Shiu Ka-chun (Independent) | 4,603 | 40.79 | ||
Yip Kin-chung (Nonpartisan) | 3,858 | 34.19 | |||||
Kwan Yui-huen (Nonpartisan) | 1,255 | 11.12 | |||||
Tsang Kin-chiu (Nonpartisan) | 1,011 | 8.96 | |||||
Wong Sing-chi (Nonpartisan) | 557 | 4.94 | |||||
Real Estate and Construction | Abraham Shek Lai-him (BPA) | Incumbent hold | Abraham Shek Lai-him (BPA) | uncontested | |||
Tourism | Yiu Si-wing (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent hold | Yiu Si-wing (Nonpartisan) | 625 | 60.86 | ||
Freddy Yip Hing-ning (Nonpartisan) | 288 | 28.04 | |||||
Lam Siu-lun (Nonpartisan) | 114 | 11.10 | |||||
Commercial (First) | Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung (BPA) | Incumbent hold | Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung (BPA) | 455 | 53.97 | ||
Joseph Chan Ho-lim (Liberal) | 388 | 46.03 | |||||
Commercial (Second) | Martin Liao Cheung-kong (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent hold | Martin Liao Cheung-kong (Nonpartisan) | uncontested | |||
Industrial (First) | Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen (BPA) | Incumbent hold | Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen (BPA) | uncontested | |||
Industrial (Second) | Lam Tai-fai (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent retired Nonpartisan gain | Ng Wing-ka (Nonpartisan) | uncontested | |||
Finance | Ng Leung-sing (Nonpartisan) | Incumbent retired Nonpartisan gain | Chan Chun-ying (Nonpartisan) | uncontested | |||
Financial Services | Christopher Cheung Wah-fung (BPA) | Incumbent hold | Christopher Cheung Wah-fung (BPA) | 261 | 51.48 | ||
Ricky Chim Kim-lun (Nonpartisan) | 150 | 29.59 | |||||
Tsui Luen-on (Nonpartisan) | 96 | 18.93 | |||||
Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication | Ma Fung-kwok (New Forum) | Incumbent hold | Ma Fung-kwok (New Forum) | 1,389 | 63.19 | ||
Chow Pok-yin (Nonpartisan) | 809 | 36.02 | |||||
Import and Export | Wong Ting-kwong (DAB) | Incumbent hold | Wong Ting-kwong (DAB) | uncontested | |||
Textiles and Garment | Chung Kwok-pan (Liberal) | Incumbent hold | Chung Kwok-pan (Liberal) | 1,138 | 75.92 | ||
Kenny Yang Si-kit (Nonpartisan) | 361 | 24.08 | |||||
Wholesale and Retail | Vincent Fang Kang (Liberal) | Incumbent retired Liberal hold | Shiu Ka-fai (Liberal) | 2,290 | 65.04 | ||
Au Nok-hin (Democratic) | 1,231 | 34.96 | |||||
Information Technology | Charles Peter Mok (PC) | Incumbent hold | Charles Peter Mok (PC) | 6,253 | 64.61 | ||
Eric Yeung Chuen-sing (Nonpartisan) | 3,425 | 35.39 | |||||
Catering | Tommy Cheung Yu-yan (Liberal) | Incumbent hold | Tommy Cheung Yu-yan (Liberal) | 2,438 | 79.03 | ||
Ng Wing-tak (Nonpartisan) | 647 | 20.97 | |||||
District Council (First) | Ip Kwok-him (DAB) | Incumbent retired DAB hold | Lau Kwok-fan (DAB) | uncontested |
New People's Party chairwoman Regina Ip's car was caught driving out from the Liaison Office few hours after the election. Ip initially told Ming Pao her car was at the Liaison Office because she was sending some books she wrote to her friends there. She later admitted she lied about it as she "was requested by the other party to keep the meeting confidential". She also denied that she went there to thank Beijing for its support in the election. [74] She was criticised as the Liaison Office had been accused for meddling in local politics and elections.
Rosanda Mok of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood and Erica Yuen of the People Power resigned as chairwoman after the parties' election defeats. Gary Fan who lost Neo Democrats' only seat in the legislature also resigned from the party's executive committee. Three Neo Democrats' Sha Tin District Councillors, Yau Man-chun, Billy Chan Shiu-yeung and Sunny Chiu Chu-pong, who campaigned for another pro-democrat Andrew Cheng without the party's consent were expelled from the party after the election. Fan criticised Cheng, Fan's mentor, for splitting the votes and causing his defeat. [75]
Benny Tai's tactical voting plan ThunderGo was also blamed for causing the losses of the veteran pan-democrats, including Labour Party's Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as Civic Passion's Wong Yeung-tat, in whom the plan advise to drop to make way for League of Social Democrats' Wong Ho-ming and People Power's Tam Tak-chi in New Territories West and Kowloon East respectively. The seats were eventually won by pro-Beijing independents Junius Ho and Paul Tse in those constituencies. Benny Tai said the root of the matter was the fragmenting of the opposition camp, leading to many candidate lists which led to the need for tactical voting. [76]
After the election, nonpartisan Eddie Chu, who was widely known for taking on the Heung Yee Kuk over its land rights, complained of "imminent" death threats against him and his family. Chu's campaign drew public attention to the long-time allegations of collusion between the government, business, landlords and triads behind the Wang Chau housing project, which made the government to scale down the housing project from 17,000 flats to only 4,000 due to the pressure from the powerful rural leader Tsang Shu-wo who owned the brownfield land in Wang Chau. [77] He was placed under round-the-clock protection by the police days after the election. [78] The incident escalated into the a major political crisis in the following weeks as the government was questioned over the alleged collusion.
On 8 September, Chan Ho-tin of the Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) who was disqualified from standing in the election challenged the government through an election petition. [79] Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous also filed his legal petition over his disqualification on 7 October. [80] On 13 February 2018, the High Court ruled against Chan Ho-tin on his petition. [81]
Frederick Fung Kin-kee, SBS, JP is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1991 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2016 and the former chairman of the pro-democracy Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) from 1989 to 2007.
The Kowloon West geographical constituency was one of the five geographical constituencies of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council election and was abolished under the 2021 overhaul of the Hong Kong electoral system. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, it elected six members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation. It had 602,733 registered electorates in 2020. The constituency corresponded to the districts of Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po, and Kowloon City.
The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic Law under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework.
The League of Social Democrats (LSD) is a social democratic party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Chan Po-ying, wife of Leung Kwok-hung, it positions itself as the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp and stresses on "street actions" and "parliamentary struggles".
The 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 7 September 2008 for the 4th Legislative Council since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. There were 60 seats in the 4th Legislative Council, with 30 members elected by geographical constituencies through direct elections, and 30 members by functional constituencies. Candidates for 14 functional constituency seats were unopposed.
The Neo Democrats was a pro-democracy, localist political group in Hong Kong composed mainly of former and disenchanted members of the Democratic Party New Territories East branch after the 2012 constitutional reform proposals. It had held one seat in the Legislative Council until Gary Fan lost his re-election in the 2016 Legislative Council election. Fan won the seat back in the 2018 by-election, but lost his seat after a court declared that he was not duly elected. It held 8 seats in the District Councils before its dissolution on 26 June 2021.
The Fifth Legislative Council of Hong Kong was the fifth meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The membership of the LegCo is based on the 2012 election. The term of the session is from 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2016, during the term in office of the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Due to the new arrangements agreed in a contentious LegCo vote in 2010, the session consists of the new total of 70 seats in LegCo, ten more than previously, with 35 members elected in geographical constituencies through direct elections, and 35 members in functional constituencies, in which five District Council (Second) functional constituency seats each represent all 18 District councils of Hong Kong voted for by all resident voters in Hong Kong. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong remained the largest party while the pan-democrats secured the one-third crucial minority. Notable new members of the LegCo members include Gary Fan from the new established party Neo Democrats and first openly gay councillor, People Power's Ray Chan Chi-chuen.
Civic Passion was a radical, populist, localist, and nativist political party in Hong Kong. Founded by Wong Yeung-tat as an activist group in 2012, it held strong localist views and opposed the involvement of the Chinese government in the governance of Hong Kong. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, the Civic Passion formed an electoral alliance with Wong Yuk-man's Proletariat Political Institute and Chin Wan's Hong Kong Resurgence Order. Cheng Chung-tai became the only candidate of the alliance elected to the legislature and subsequently took over as the leader of the Civic Passion. After the election, Cheng reorganised the group into a political party and pulled out from the social activism. From December 2020 to August 2021, it was the only opposition party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
The 2015 Hong Kong District Council elections were held on 22 November 2015. Elections were held to all 18 District Councils with returning 431 members from directly elected constituencies after all appointed seats had been abolished.
The 2016 New Territories East by-election was held on 28 February 2016 after the incumbent Legislative Councillor Ronny Tong Ka-wah of New Territories East quit the Civic Party and resigned from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), effective on 1 October 2015.
Youngspiration is a localist political party in Hong Kong founded in 2015. It emerged after the 2014 Hong Kong protests with an agenda of protection of Hong Kong people's interests and culture against the interference of the Chinese government and advocated the "Hong Kong nation's right to self-determination". The group wants a self-determination referendum in 2020 with the results effective in 2047, when China's "one country, two systems" promise ends. As of 2016, the convenor of the group is Baggio Leung.
In Hong Kong, localism is a political movement centred on the preservation of the city's autonomy and local culture. The Hong Kong localist movement encompasses a variety of groups with different goals, but all of them oppose the perceived growing encroachment of the Chinese central government on the city's management of its own political, economic, and social affairs. While the movement's milder elements advocate for greater autonomy while remaining as part of China, the more radical elements call for a return to British rule or full independence as a sovereign state. Some also advocate for a more aggressive and militant stance against the mainland government in defending local interests. For that reason, they are labelled as "radicals" and "separatists" by the Chinese government. Issues of concern to the localist camp include land use and development, cultural and heritage conservation, parallel trading, and the increasing number of mainland immigrants and mainland tourists. Although grouped together with liberals, they have a distinct view as they advocate for Hongkongers' right to self-determination. In the aftermath of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, localists were largely absorbed into the pro-democracy camp.
Localist camp or localist and self-determination groups refers to the various groups with localist ideologies in Hong Kong. It emerged from post-80s social movements in the late 2000s which centred on the preservation of the city's autonomy and local lifestyles and opposed the perceived growing encroachment of the Chinese government on the city's management of its own political, economic, and social affairs.
The People Power–League of Social Democrats, are two radical democratic parties that set up an electoral alliance for the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election under the name "progressive democrats". It fielded a total of nine candidates to contest Legislative Council seats in the five geographical constituencies, in which two of the three incumbents were returned.
A controversy arose during the 2016 Legislative Council election in Hong Kong as the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) banned six potential localist candidates from running for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The EAC carried out a new election measure to require all candidates to sign an additional "confirmation form" in the nomination to declare their understanding of Hong Kong being an inalienable part of China as stipulated in Article 1, Article 12 and Article 159(4) of the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
The Sixth Legislative Council of Hong Kong was the sixth meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Running from 1 October 2016 to 31 December 2021, it was the longest legislative session in Hong Kong history, lasted for five years and three months. The term of the session was originally from 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2020, but was extended by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) due to the postponement of the 2020 Legislative Council election.
Lau Siu-lai is a Hong Kong educator, academic, activist, and politician. She is a sociology lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Hong Kong Community College and the founder of Democracy Groundwork and Age of Resistance. In 2016, Lau was elected to the Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency until she was disqualified by the court on 14 July 2017 over her oath-taking manner at the inaugural meeting of the Legislative Council on 12 October 2016.
The 2018 Kowloon West by-election was held on 25 November 2018 after the incumbent pro-democracy Legislative Councillor Lau Siu-lai of Kowloon West was disqualified from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) after the oath-taking controversy resulted in the disqualifications of the six pro-democracy and localist legislators. It followed the by-election of four other vacated seats on 11 March 2018. Chan Hoi-yan, a nonpartisan backed by the pro-Beijing camp won over veteran democrat Lee Cheuk-yan of the Labour Party, a backup candidate for the pro-democracy camp after Lau's candidacy was disqualified.
The 2018 Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election was held on 11 March 2018 for four of the six vacancies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) - the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East geographical constituencies and the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency - resulting from the disqualification of six pro-democrat and localist camp Legislative Council members over the 2016 oath-taking controversy. The by-election for the two other seats was not held due to pending legal appeals by the two disqualified legislators.
On 11 November 2020, 15 Hong Kong pro-democracy members of the Legislative Council announced their resignations in protest against the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) which bars Legislative Council members from supporting Hong Kong independence, refusing to recognise Beijing's sovereignty over Hong Kong, seeking help from "foreign countries or foreign forces to interfere in the affairs of the region" or committing "other acts that endanger national security" that resulted in the disqualification of pro-democracy legislators Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung. In July 2020, the four had been barred from running in the subsequently postponed Legislative Council election originally scheduled for September 2020. The resignation en masse left the Legislative Council membership dwindled to 43 out of the total number of 70 seats, with virtually no opposition for the first time since the 1997 handover.