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.
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.
Hong Kong Indigenous is a localist political group established in 2015. It is known for its localist stances and militant tendency of protesting. It has been actively involved in protests and engaged into violent clashes with police, including in the anti-parallel trading protests and the Mong Kok unrest. Ray Wong Toi-yeung is the former convenor and key figure of the group.
Edward Leung Tin-kei is a Hong Kong politician and activist. He is the former spokesperson of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group. He advocates Hong Kong independence, and coined the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times" during the 2016 by-election, which was later widely used in 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
In Hong Kong, localism is a political movement centered 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. Issues of concern to localist groups include land use and development, cultural and heritage conservation on the left, parallel trading and the increasing number of mainland immigrants and tourists on the right. On the autonomy of Hong Kong, many of them advocate the Hong Kong people's right to self-determination, while milder elements advocate for greater autonomy while remaining part of China, and the most radical call for return to British rule or full independence as a sovereign state. Certain right-wing localist groups also advocate for a more aggressive and militant approach in defending popular interests.
Localist groups, or localist and self-determination groups, are 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 Beijing government on the city's management of its own political, economic, and social affairs.
A localist political alliance was formed by 3 Hong Kong organisations – Civic Passion, Proletariat Political Institute and Hong Kong Resurgence Order – to field candidates to contest the 2016 legislative election. Without an official name, the alliance is informally called Yit Po Shing in Chinese, taking one word from each of the member organisation's name or ideology. The alliance's common platform is "Creating a de facto referendum in five constituencies; allow all citizens to participate in the creation of constitution".
Regine Yau Wai-ching is a Hong Kong former politician and former member of the localist group Youngspiration. She was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a member for Kowloon West in the 2016 Legislative Council election, but has since been disqualified pursuant to a judgement delivered by the High Court on 15 November 2016.
Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He is the convenor of Youngspiration, a localist political group in Hong Kong that leans towards Hong Kong independence, and is also leader and spokesperson of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Front. He was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a member for New Territories East in the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election. Triggered by his actions to make an independence political statement during the oath-taking ceremony, he faced a legal challenge from the government and was later stripped of his office by the court on 15 November 2016.
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 Hong Kong Legislative Council members' oath-taking controversy was a series of events surrounding the oaths of office of a dozen pro-democracy and localist members-elect of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) on 12 October 2016 which have resulted in the disqualification of six members, Sixtus "Baggio" Leung and Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration, who were unseated by the court on 15 November 2016, and Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law, Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai on 14 July 2017.
Chan Chak-to is a Hong Kong politician and activist. He is known to be his outright pro-Hong Kong independence stance and his active involvement in the electoral politics as a localist. He is currently the convenor of the district-based Kowloon East Community, which commands one seat in the District Councils.
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 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.
Tsz Wan Shan Constructive Power is a local political group based in Tsz Wan Shan of Wong Tai Sin District founded in January 2015 by a group of HKGolden netizens. Inspired by the Umbrella Revolution, the group contested in the 2015 District Council election but failed to win any seats. It won two seats in a historic pro-democracy landslide in 2019 District Council election.
Cheung Sha Wan Community Establishment Power is a local political group based in Cheung Sha Wan of Sham Shui Po District founded in 2015. Inspired by the Umbrella Revolution, the group contested in the 2015 District Council election but failed to win any seats. It won one seat in a historic pro-democracy landslide in 2019 District Council election, occupied by its convenor Leos Lee Man-ho.
Kalvin Ho Kai-ming is a Hong Kong politician. He is the current vice chairman of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) and member of the Sham Shui Po District Council for Nam Cheong East since 2016.
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.
