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 (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kon ...

(LegCo) since the establishment of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta ...

(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 handover in 1997 an ...

(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 L ...

, 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 a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

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 camp (Hong Kong), pro-Beijing Conservatism, conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council of Hon ...

(DAB), the weaker side compared to the more developed pro-democratic party, the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

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 one ...

, 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 transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

carried out by the last

colonial governor Governors and administrators of colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of th ...

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

. 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). Comprising nine chapters, 160 a ...

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 a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

system was adopted by the SAR government in replacement of the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

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 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 movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipel ...

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 hedge ...

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 Serv ...

and

Regional Council Regional Council may refer to: * Regional Council (Hong Kong), disbanded in 1999 ** Regional Council (constituency) Regional council may refer to: * Regional council (Cameroon) * Regional council (France), the elected assembly of a region of Fra ...

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

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong ...

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

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

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 voting, also called tactical voting, sophisticated voting or insincere voting, occurs in voting system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their ...

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

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a generalization of first-past-the-post, applied to multi-member districts with each voter casting just one vote. Unlike FPTP, which is a single-win ...

, to encourage split voting among their supporters. In New Territories East,

Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; 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's flagship pro-democracy party. H ...

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, 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, GBM, GBS, JP (; born 8 November 1951) is a former unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, served between 2016 and 2022. He is also former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the District Council ...

of the rival pro-Beijing

(DAB).

Results

Overview

The results saw the

pro-democratic 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 Basi ...

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. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a l ...

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 could not save his seat in New Territories East 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 The Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) was a pro-Beijing, pro-business political party in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1994 and was merged into the Democratic Alliance fo ...

, − , − , − , 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;" ,

, 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 , 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 subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be u ...

with the

Largest remainder method The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with various ...

and

Hare Quota The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. Th ...

Functional Constituencies (30 seats)

Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repre ...

, Agriculture and Fisheries,

and

, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the first-past-the-post voting system.

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" 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 an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

May 1998 events in Asia