The 1998 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 24 May 1998 for members of the 1st

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

(LegCo) since the establishment of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a Special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the List of ...

(HKSAR) in 1997. Replacing the

Provisional Legislative Council The Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) was the interim legislature of Hong Kong that operated from 1997 to 1998. The legislature was founded in Guangzhou and sat in Shenzhen from 1996 (with offices in Hong Kong), until the 1997 handover whe ...

(PLC) strictly controlled by the Beijing government and boycotted by the

pro-democracy camp 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 La ...

, the elections returned 20 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 10 seats from the Election Committee constituency and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 10 were uncontested. Taking the advantage of the

proportional representation system Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (political parties) among voters. The aim ...

installed by Beijing, the pro-Beijing party, the

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing political party registered since 1992 in Hong Kong. Chaired by Gary Chan and holding 19 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party ...

(DAB), the weaker side compared to the more developed pro-democratic party, the Democratic Party recorded a clearer increase in the number of seats in the election. The Democratic Party returned to the Legislative Council as the largest party with 13 seats, while the

Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood 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 o ...

, a pro-democratic party joined. The Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council lost all its seats.

Electoral method

The electoral method for the first Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was crafted by the

(PLC) installed by the Beijing government during the intense Sino-British confrontation over the

democratic reform Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...

carried out by the last colonial governor

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes (; born 12 May 1944), is a British politician who was the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a lif ...

. According to the

Hong Kong Basic Law The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a national law of China that serves as the organic law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). With nine chapters, 160 article ...

promulgated by Beijing in April 1990, the first legislature would be composed of 60 members, with 20 members returned by

geographical constituencies In Hong Kong, geographical constituencies, as opposed to functional constituencies, are elected by all eligible voters according to geographically demarcated constituencies. There are currently 5 geographical constituencies in Hong Kong, returni ...

through direct elections, 10 members returned by an election committee and 30 members returned by functional constituencies. For the geographical constituencies, A

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system was adopted by the SAR government in replacement of the

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

system introduced in 1995. Under the system Hong Kong was divided into five large districts instead of 20 small ones, with voters in each district choosing three to five persons from candidate lists. It was designed to reward the weaker

pro-Beijing The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp or pro-China camp is a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Hong Kong. The term " ...

candidates and dilute the electoral strength of the majority democrats. For the functional constituencies, the corporate voting was restored after it was abolished in 1995. It reduced the number of eligible voters by almost 90 percent, from over 1.1 million in 1995 to fewer than 140,000 in 1998. There were also vast disparities in the number of eligible voters among the functional constituencies, ranging from highs of approximately 50,000 in the Education constituency to a few hundred or less in the Agriculture and Fisheries

Transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

Insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...

and Regional Council constituencies. For the election committee, the 10 seats would be elected by the 800-member

Election Committee The Election Committee is the electoral college in Hong Kong that selects the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, elects 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong Kong which states ...

, successor to the 400-member Selection Committee which elected the SAR's first

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

in 1996. The committee was predominantly composed of conservative, pro-Beijing business, industrial and professional elites.

Campaign

The proportional representation system induced the contesting parties to practice

strategic voting Strategic or tactical voting is voting in consideration of possible ballots cast by other voters in order to maximize one's satisfaction with the election's results. Gibbard's theorem shows that no voting system has a single "always-best" strat ...

, effectively turning what would have been otherwise a proportional electoral system into

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote. Being a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, under SNTV small parties, as well as large parties, have a chance t ...

, to encourage split voting among their supporters. In

New Territories East New Territories East is the eastern part of New Territories, covering North District, Hong Kong, North, Tai Po District, Tai Po, Sha Tin District, Sha Tin, and Sai Kung District. History All districts except Sai Kung District have been connected ...

Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party (Hong Kong), Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship Pr ...

's Democratic Party reportedly advised its supporters to split their family members' votes between the Democratic Party and its ally The Frontier to help ensure of a third pro-democracy candidate. In

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

, the Democratic Party picked a relatively unknown candidate in the third place of its party list, a move reportedly intended to help

Christine Loh Christine Loh Kung-wai, SBS, OBE, JP, Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (born 1 February 1956), is a former Hong Kong Legislative Councillor, founder and CEO of Civic Exchange, founder of the Citizens Party, and founder of Hong ...

of the pro-democratic Citizens Party to finish ahead of the second candidate

Ip Kwok-him Ip Kwok-him, Grand Bauhinia Medal, GBM, Gold Bauhinia Star, GBS, Justice of the Peace, JP ( zh, 葉國謙; born 8 November 1951) is a former unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, served between 2016 and 2022. He is also forme ...

of the rival pro-Beijing

(DAB).

Results

Overview

The results saw the pro-democratic camp once again collectively gained over 60 percent of the popular vote, but their share of directly elected seats shrink form 85 percent (17/20) to 65 percent (14/20), due to the new electoral system. The leading pro-Beijing party, the

(DAB) which had suffered from the underrepresentation under the single-member plurality system, picked up one seat in each geographical constituency for its 25 percent share of the popular vote. The

(ADPL), a pro-democratic party joined the Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council lost all its seats, while two other pro-democratic parties, The Frontier and Citizens Party won 3 and 1 seat respectively. The pro-business

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

won most seats in the functional constituencies by taking 9 seats in the trade-based sectors, but failed to win any seat in the geographical constituency direct election. Its chairman

Allen Lee Allen Lee Peng-fei, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Justice of the peace, JP (; 24 April 194015 May 2020) was a Hong Kong industrialist, politician and political commentator. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, serving ...

could not save his seat in

which he won in the 1995 election. Some 77,813 voters (65 percent of those eligible) cast votes in the 20 functional constituencies while ten others ran uncontested. Reflecting the built-in conservative bias in the majority of the functional constituencies, pro-government parties and their unaffiliated allies dominated the sectors. Due to the pro-Beijing composition of the

, the pro-Beijing candidates won all 10 seats in the sector. , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan=2 colspan=3, Parties ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=3 , Geographical
constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=3 , Functional
constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , ECC
seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , Total
seats , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , rowspan=4 style="text-align:left;background-color:Pink;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 50,335 , 3.40 , 0 , 1,316 , 1.73 , 9 , 1 , 10 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 373,428 , 25.23 , 5 , 293 , 0.38 , 2 , 2 , 9 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , Hong Kong Progressive Alliance , − , − , − , 430 , 0.56 , 2 , 3 , 5 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , Pro-government individuals and others , 25,905 , 1.75 , 0 , 22,442 , 29.44 , 12 , 4 , 16 , -style="background-color:Pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pro-Beijing camp , 449,668 , 30.38 , 5 , 24,481 , 32.11 , 25 , 10 , 40 , - , width=4px rowspan=6 style="text-align:left;background-color:LightGreen;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , width=4px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , Democratic Party , 634,635 , 42.87 , 9 , 48,085 , 63.07 , 4 , – , 13 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , The Frontier , 148,507 , 10.03 , 3 , – , – , – , – , 3 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , Citizens Party , 41,633 , 2.81 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood 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 ...

, 59,034 , 3.99 , 0 , 0 , 0.00 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

123 Democratic Alliance 123 Democratic Alliance ( Chinese: 一二三民主聯盟) was a pro-Kuomintang political party in Hong Kong. Established in 1994 by a group of pro-Taiwan, pro-democracy and pro-business politicians, it aims at striving for the unification of ...

, 3,050 , 0.21 , 0 , − , − , – , – , 0 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" , Pro-democracy individuals and others , 95,390 , 6.44 , 2 , 1,889 , 2.48 , 1 , 0 , 3 , -style="background-color:LightGreen" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pro-democracy camp , 982,249 , 66.36 , 15 , 49,974 , 65.55 , 5 , 0 , 20 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Individuals and others , 48,323 , 3.26 , 0 , 1,781 , 2.34 , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Total , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,480,240 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 20 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 76,236 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 30 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 10 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 60 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=11, , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Valid votes , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,480,240 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 99.36 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" rowspan=4, , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 76,236 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 97.97 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="4", , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Invalid votes , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 9,465 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.64 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,577 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 2.13 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=4 , , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Vote cast / turnout , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,489,705 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 53.29 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 77,813 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 63.50 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=4 , , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Registered voters , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 2,795,371 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 122,540 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=4 , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=11 , 10 candidates in 10 functional constituencies were elected unopposed to the Legislative Council.
(Total votes added up by this reference)

Vote summary

Seat summary

Result breakdown

Geographical constituencies (20 seats)

Voting System: Closed

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

with the

Largest remainder method Party-list proportional representation Apportionment methods The quota or divide-and-rank methods make up a category of apportionment rules, i.e. algorithms for allocating seats in a legislative body among multiple groups (e.g. parties or f ...

and

Hare Quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...

Functional Constituencies (30 seats)

Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries,

and

, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the

first-past-the-post voting system First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

Election Committee (10 seats)

Implication

The 1998 election is the first election after the Handover in 1997. Some observers believed the generally free and fair election was crucial for the consolidation of the newly established HKSAR and the political setting of "

one country, two systems "One country, two systems" is a constitutional principle of the People's Republic of China (PRC) describing the governance of the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Deng Xiaoping developed the one country, two systems ...

" after widespread criticism on the PLC.

References

External links

Official Government election site
{{Hong Kong elections 1998 elections in China 1998 in Hong Kong

Legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

May 1998 in China