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3 Geographical Constituencies & 1 Functional Constituency in the Legislative Council | |||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 43.13% | ||||||||||||||||||
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Camps with most votes by each district | |||||||||||||||||||
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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. [1] The by-election for the two other seats was not held due to pending legal appeals by the two disqualified legislators.
The pro-democrats and pro-Beijing camp each won two seats in the election. Independent democrat Au Nok-hin replaced Demosistō's Agnes Chow - whose candidacy was rejected before the election - won in Hong Kong Island, and the Neo Democrats' Gary Fan retook his seat in New Territories East, while pro-Beijing nonpartisan Tony Tse, who was defeated in his 2016 re-election bid, regained the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape seat, and Vincent Cheng of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) caused an upset in Kowloon West by narrowly defeating independent democrat Yiu Chung-yim who lost his seat in the oath-taking controversy, making it the first time the pro-Beijing camp received a greater vote share than the pro-democrats in a geographical constituency since 2000 and the first time a pro-Beijing candidate won in a geographical constituency by-election since 1992.
The vote share of the pro-democracy camp dropped significantly from the traditional level of around 55 per cent to only 47 per cent, with a low turnout of 43 per cent. As a result, the pro-Beijing camp maintained its dominance in the geographical constituencies following the oath-taking disqualification with a one-seat majority.
The 2016 Legislative Council election saw the emergence of the newly founded localist camp legislators elected to the Legislative Council, including Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching of the pro-independence Youngspiration, as well as Nathan Law of the Demosistō and nonpartisans Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu who ran under the banner of the "democratic self-determination".
On 12 October 2016 the inaugural meeting of LegCo, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching used the oath-taking ceremony as a platform to protest, by claiming that "as a member of the Legislative Council, I shall pay earnest efforts in keeping guard over the interests of the Hong Kong nation," displaying a "Hong Kong is not China" banner, and mispronouncing "People’s Republic of China" as "people’s re-fucking of Chee-na". [2] Their oath were invalidated by the clerk and the controversy caused a huge backlash among the Hong Kong public. [3] Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen took the unprecedented step of launching a judicial review seeking the disqualification of the duo.
On 7 November, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) controversially interpreted Article 104 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong to "clarify" the requirements that the legislators need to swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China when they take office, stating that "who intentionally reads out words which do not accord with the wording of the oath prescribed by law, or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn" should be barred from taking their public office and cannot retake the oath. As a consequence, the High Court disqualified Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching on 15 November. [4] On 25 August 2017, the Court of Final Appeal rejected a final bid by Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching. [5]
On 2 December, Leung Chun-ying and Rimsky Yuen lodged another judicial review against Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai, Leung Kwok-hung and Yiu Chung-yim who also added words into or changed their tones when reading the oaths during the ceremony. [6] As a result, the High Court ruled the four pro-democracy legislators were to lose their seats on 14 July 2017. [7]
The government announced the date of the by-election for four of the six constituencies would be on 11 March 2018. [1] Nevertheless, the by-elections of the other seat in Kowloon West and New Territories East after the disqualification of Lau Siu-lai and Leung Kwok-hung would not be held as the duo are seeking for appeal. Lau and Leung were seeking for appeals strategically to avoid the by-election of both two seats in Kowloon West and New Territories East to be held together, which would give pro-Beijing camp the advantage to take at least one seat away from the pro-democrats in each constituency.
In order to maximise the chance of pro-democracy camp, the Power for Democracy initiated a co-ordination of the pro-democracy candidates in elections. It held a primary in Kowloon West and New Territories East, where more than one pro-democrats were interested in running from December 2017 to January 2018. [8] The primary was conducted in three parts: telephone polls, a generic ballot vote on 14 January 2018 and voting by parties and civil groups that participated in the primary. The first two parts counted for 45 per cent each, and the last part counted for 10 per cent in the final result. [9]
In Kowloon West, the candidates were Frederick Fung of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), Ramon Yuen of the Democratic Party, Occupy activist Ken Tsang and disqualified legislator Yiu Chung-yim, which Tsang subsequently withdrew from the primary to support Yiu; in New Territories East, the candidates were Gary Fan of the Neo Democrats, Kwok Wing-kin of the Labour Party and former president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Students' Union Tommy Cheung.
More than 26,000 registered voters cast their ballots in the 14 January primary, 12,438 of which turned out at the three polling stations in Kowloon West and 13,699 turned out for at five polling stations in New Territories East. [10] Yiu Chung-yim and Gary Fan received the most votes in the generic votes as well as the overall scores in the primary, becoming the pro-democracy representatives in the Kowloon West and New Territories East by-election respectively.
Party | Candidate | Telephone polls | Generic ballots | Group votes | Total scores | |||||||
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Results | % | Scores | Results | % | Scores | Results | % | Scores | ||||
Nonpartisan | Yiu Chung-yim | 938 | 48.43 | 21.79 | 9,780 | 78.83 | 35.47 | 78 | 69.64 | 6.96 | 64.22 | |
ADPL | Frederick Fung Kin-kee | 633 | 32.68 | 14.71 | 2,036 | 16.41 | 7.38 | 16 | 14.29 | 1.43 | 23.52 | |
Democratic | Ramon Yuen Hoi-man | 366 | 18.89 | 8.50 | 591 | 4.76 | 2.14 | 18 | 16.07 | 1.61 | 12.25 | |
Rejected | 179 | 31 | 5 | |||||||||
Total | 2,115 | 100 | 45 | 12,438 | 100 | 45 | 117 | 100 | 10 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Telephone polls | Generic ballots | Group votes | Total scores | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Results | % | Scores | Results | % | Scores | Results | % | Scores | ||||
Neo Democrats | Gary Fan Kwok-wai | 923 | 60.92 | 27.40 | 8,089 | 59.45 | 26.75 | 34 | 29.57 | 2.96 | 57.11 | |
Labour | Kwok Wing-kin | 287 | 18.94 | 8.53 | 3,058 | 22.47 | 10.11 | 56 | 48.70 | 4.87 | 23.51 | |
Independent | Tommy Cheung Sau-yin | 305 | 20.13 | 9.06 | 2,460 | 18.08 | 8.14 | 25 | 21.74 | 2.17 | 19.37 | |
Rejected | 241 | 92 | 0 | |||||||||
Total | 1,756 | 100 | 45 | 13,699 | 100 | 45 | 115 | 100 | 10 | 100 |
After the primary, Frederick Fung, ranked the second in the primary, announced that he was under pressure to withdraw as a backup candidacy as agreed in the primary if Yiu Chung-yim was disqualified by the Electoral Affair Commission. "Someone from the progressive democracy bloc told me that if I ran in the poll, they would definitely send someone as well [to challenge me],” Fung said. “I hope my withdrawal will allow the hatred to dissipate." Progressive democrat legislator Eddie Chu, who earlier commented on facebook warning Fung's chance of winning as voters might refuse to vote for him and therefore the camp should not blindly abide by the agreement, denied he had been the one pressuring Fung to withdraw. [11]
Agnes Chow, Demosistō standing committee member, emerged as the party's and the pro-democrats' sole candidate in the Hong Kong Island by-election after Nathan Law's girlfriend Tiffany Yuen reportedly declined to run. Chow fulfilled the age limit of 21 after her 21st birthday on 3 December 2017. [12] She officially announced her candidacy on 14 January 2018. [13] On 27 January, her candidacy was invalidated by the returning officer as she claimed that "the candidate cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]." The European Union issued a statement warning that banning Chow from the by-election "risks diminishing Hong Kong’s international reputation as a free and open society". [14] The pro-democracy camp supported its backup candidate Au Nok-hin running on behalf of Chow. [15]
Yiu Chung-yim, who was rumoured that his candidacy could be foiled on the basis of National People's Congress Standing Committee interpretation of the Basic Law being applied to the entire term of the current legislature, survived the disqualification. Ramon Yuen, who became the backup candidate after the runner-up in the pro-democracy primary Frederick Fung declared he would not be the backup candidate, initially submitted his nomination amid the rumours, withdrew his candidacy hours afterward after Yiu's candidacy was validated by the returning officer on the last day of the nomination period on 29 January. [16]
The candidacies of two other localists, Sha Tin District Councillor James Chan Kwok-keung and convenor of the Shatin Community Network Ventus Lau Wing-hong who ran in the New Territories East, were also disqualified by the returning officer Amy Chan Yuen-man on the grounds that they had advocated Hong Kong independence, even though Lau had earlier made a declaration suggesting he no longer supported the idea. [17] [18] Chan also claimed that he was never an independence advocate but an advocate of "communism out of Hong Kong." [19]
Some 904,000 of 2.1 million registered voters in the four constituencies cast their ballots with the turnout rate of 43 per cent, 15 per cent lower than the 2016 general election. The pro-democrats underperformed in the poll, which saw their vote share dropping significantly from the traditional 55 per cent to only 47 per cent. The result in the Kowloon West constituency was a surprise reversal as Vincent Cheng of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) narrowly defeated pro-democrat independent Yiu Chung-yim by a margin of 1.1 per cent. [36] Yiu requested a recount at 5am but only confirmed his defeat in the constituency, which made it the first time the pro-Beijing camp received greater vote share than the pro-democrats in a geographical constituency since the 2000 Legislative Council election in Kowloon East where DAB's Chan Yuen-han and Chan Kam-lam topped the poll with a margin of 2.1 per cent compared to the Democratic Party's Szeto Wah and Fred Li. It was also the first time a pro-Beijing candidate won in a geographical constituency by-election since the 1992 New Territories West by-election. Prior to that, the pro-democrats had never lost in a single-member district direct election in the SAR period. It also continued the pro-Beijing dominance in the geographical constituencies after the oath-taking disqualification with a one-seat majority.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Au Nok-hin | 137,181 | 50.70 | ||
NPP | Judy Kapui Chan | 127,634 | 47.17 | ||
Nonpartisan | Edward Yum Liang-hsien | 3,580 | 1.32 | ||
Nonpartisan | Ng Dick-hay | 2,202 | 0.81 | ||
Majority | 9,547 | 3.53 | |||
Total valid votes | 270,597 | 100.00 | |||
Rejected ballots | 2,377 | ||||
Turnout | 272,974 | 43.80 | |||
Registered electors | 623,273 | ||||
Independent gain from Demosisto | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
DAB | Vincent Cheng Wing-shun | 107,479 | 49.91 | ||
Nonpartisan | Yiu Chung-yim | 105,060 | 48.79 | ||
Nonpartisan | Jonathan Tsoi Tung-chau | 2,794 | 1.30 | ||
Majority | 2,419 | 1.12 | |||
Total valid votes | 215,333 | 100.00 | |||
Rejected ballots | 1,562 | ||||
Turnout | 216,895 | 44.31 | |||
Registered electors | 489,451 | ||||
DAB gain from Youngspiration | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neo Democrats | Gary Fan Kwok-wai | 183,762 | 44.57 | ||
FTU (DAB) | Tang Ka-piu | 152,904 | 37.08 | ||
Livelihood First | Christine Fong Kwok-shan | 64,905 | 15.74 | ||
Independent | Wong Sing-chi | 6,182 | 1.50 | ||
Nonpartisan | Joyce Chiu Pui-yuk | 3,068 | 0.74 | ||
Independent | Estella Chan Yuet-ngor | 1,504 | 0.36 | ||
Majority | 30,858 | 7.49 | |||
Total valid votes | 412,325 | 100.00 | |||
Rejected ballots | 4,363 | ||||
Turnout | 416,688 | 42.13 | |||
Registered electors | 988,986 | ||||
Neo Democrats gain from Youngspiration | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nonpartisan | Tony Tse Wai-chuen | 2,929 | 55.54 | +20.51 | |
Independent | Paulus Johannes Zimmerman | 2,345 | 44.46 | +1.02 | |
Majority | 584 | 11.08 | |||
Total valid votes | 5,274 | 100.00 | |||
Rejected ballots | 118 | ||||
Turnout | 5,392 | 70.77 | |||
Registered electors | 7,619 | ||||
Nonpartisan gain from Nonpartisan | Swing | ||||
On 13 March 2018, businessman Wong Tai-hoi of the Taxi Drivers & Operators Association accompanied by former legislator Wong Kwok-hing of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) lodged a judicial review application challenging Au Nok-hin and returning officer Anne Teng Yu-yan, who approved Au’s candidacy to run in the by-election, claiming that Au was ineligible to run because he burned a copy of the Basic Law during a protest against Beijing’s interpretation of the Basic Law over the oath-taking controversy on 2 November 2016. [41] [42] The application was however rejected by the court on 29 March. [43]
In September 2019, Court of First Instance Judge Anderson Chow overturned the returning officers' decision to disqualify Agnes Chow and Ventus Lau in the by-elections respectively, on the basis of that the disqualified candidates were not given any reasonable opportunity to respond to the returning officers' questions which led to their ineligibility. [44] The decisions meant that the winners of the Hong Kong Island and New Territories East, Au Nok-hin and Gary Fan, were not duly elected and therefore lost their seats. Au and Fan appealed to the High Court but was refused to be heard on the ground that the duo had no appeal basis. [45]
The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) is a Hong Kong pro-democracy social-liberal political party catering to grassroots interest with a strong basis in Sham Shui Po. Established on 26 October 1986, it was one of the three major pro-democracy groups along with the Meeting Point and the Hong Kong Affairs Society in the 1980s.
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 New Territories East geographical constituency was the one of the five geographical constituencies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. 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. It encompassed Sha Tin District, Tai Po District, North District and Sai Kung District. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, nine members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation with 1,139,616 electorates in 2020.
The New Territories West geographical constituency was one of the geographical constituencies in 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. Located in the western part of the New Territories, it was the largest geographical constituency in Hong Kong with 1,308,081 electorates in 2020. It consisted of Tsuen Wan District, Kwai Tsing District, Tuen Mun District, Yuen Long District and Islands District. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, it elected nine members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation.
Starry Lee Wai-king, SBS, JP is a Hong Kong politician, chairperson of the largest pro-establishment Beijing-loyalist party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). She is a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC), Legislative Councillor for the Kowloon Central geographical constituency, and a Kowloon City District Councillor. From 2012 to 2016, she was a member of the Executive Council.
Tony Tse Wai-chuen, BBS is a Hong Kong surveyor and politician. He is a member of the Legislative Council for Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape from 2012 to 2016 and again from 2018.
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 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.
Third Side is a liberal political party in Hong Kong which claims to offer a "third road" to democracy, positioned between the pro-democracy camp and the pro-Beijing camp. It is led by Tik Chi-yuen, who was a co-founder and longtime member of the Democratic Party until his expulsion in 2015 for promoting political reforms proposed by the Chinese central government.
Demosisto was a pro-democracy political organisation established on 10 April 2016 as a political party. It was led by Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow – former leaders of Scholarism, along with Nathan Law, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Scholarism and the HKFS were the two student activist groups which played an instrumental role in the 79-day occupy protests known as the Umbrella Revolution in 2014.
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.
Edward Yiu Chung-yim is a Hong Kong academic, scholar and former politician who is currently an associate professor of property at the University of Auckland Business School. He is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong elected in the 2016 Legislative Council election representing the functional constituency of Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape. On 14 July 2017, Yiu was disqualified by the court over his manner on oath of office at the inaugural meeting of the Legislative Council on 12 October 2016 as a result of the oath-taking controversy.
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 camp 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.
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.
Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, MH is a Hong Kong politician. He is the current member of the Legislative Council member for Kowloon West and former member of the Sham Shui Po District Council for Nam Cheong North from 2015 to 2019. As a member of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), he made an upset in the 2018 Legislative Council by-election in Kowloon West, being the first pro-Beijing candidate to defeat a pro-democracy opponent in an open by-election since 1992.
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.
The Public Offices Ordinance 2021 is an ordinance to amend the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance and other relating legislation which adds new requirements for the Chief Executive, Executive Council members, Legislative Council members and judges and other judicial officers, imposes oath-taking requirements on District Council members, and specifies requirements for candidates to swear to uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region when assuming office or standing for election and also adds new grounds and mechanism for disqualification from holding the office or being nominated as a candidate. The ordinance was seen as another round of the Beijing authorities to bar the opposition from standing in elections or holding public offices and also raised concerns on the bill's vague parameters of the oath with such over-reaching scope would undermine Hong Kong's judicial independence.