The Information Technology functional constituency () was a

functional constituency A functional constituency is an electoral device (a non-geographical constituency) used within the political systems of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: * Functional constituency (Hong Kong) * Functional con ...

in the elections for the

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 ...

until it was replaced by

Technology and Innovation Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scie ...

functional constituency with a much narrower electorate in the 2021 electoral overhaul. Since its creation in 1998, it has been normally held 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 ...

, with the interruption from 2008 to 2012, where the seat was held by

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

Samson Tam Samson Tam Wai-ho, JP () (born 26 February 1964 in Hong Kong) was an elected member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Functional constituency, Information Technology) from 2008 to 2012. He is the chairman and one of the founders of Grou ...

who defeated

pro-democracy 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 ful ...

candidate

Charles Mok Charles Peter Mok, JP (born 1964 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong-based Internet entrepreneur and IT advocate who formerly represents the Information Technology functional constituency on the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Mok founded HKNet in ...

by 35 votes with the help of the Internet Professional Association (iProA), a pro-Beijing IT association. In 2012, Mok retook the seat for the pro-democrats from the pro-Beijing camp by defeating Tam. Mok resigned effective 1 December 2020 as part of the 2020 LegCo mass resignations in protest of the disqualification of four pro-democracy legislators.

Composition

The Information Technology constituency was composed of individuals who are members of relevant associations such as the

Hong Kong Computer Society Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese name) *Hong (Korean name) Organiz ...

, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and corporate members of organisations such as the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry and Society of Hong Kong External Telecommunications Services Providers who are entitled to vote at general meetings, as well as some other corporations with certain licences granted by the Telecommunication Authority. Since 1998, there have been a number of additional associations included in the electorate. In 2006, there were four organisations where individual members were qualified as electorates although they were not allowed to vote in the general meetings, such as the Professional Information Security Association and the Hong Kong and Mainland Software Industry Corporation Association. Since 2003, members of the

Internet Professional Association (iProA) are also eligible to vote in the constituency, which helped its pro-Beijing member

to take the seat from pro-democrats' hand in the 2008 Legislative Council election. In 2006, there were 4,743 individuals (94.9% of the electorate) and 261 registered corporations (4.1% of the electorate). In 2016, it saw an 80% surge in the number of registered voters, from 6,716 in 2012 to 12,046 in 2016, according to provisional voter statistics released by the Registration and Electoral Office. Incumbent legislator

questioned whether pro-Beijing forces were getting people to sign up. In April 2017, the Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested 72 people over alleged vote-rigging, 68 of them were newly registered electors and four were middlemen, three of whom were registered voters. A source identified them as the members of the Internet Professional Association (iProA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Hong Kong section, computer chapter.

Returned members

Electoral results

2010s

2000s

1990s

References

{{Hong Kong Legislative Council constituencies 2016-2020 Constituencies of Hong Kong Constituencies of Hong Kong Legislative Council Functional constituencies (Hong Kong) 1998 establishments in Hong Kong Constituencies established in 1998 2021 disestablishments in Hong Kong Constituencies disestablished in 2021