CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
The Electoral System
Voter Registration
Elections to the Legislative Council geographical constituencies, municipal councils and district boards are through a broad franchise. Practically everyone who is 18 years of age or over, and who is a Hong Kong permanent resident or has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for the preceding seven years, is eligible to apply for registration as an elector in the constituency in which he lives. A registration exercise is conducted each year, although applications for registration can be made at any time of the year. The 1996 General Electoral Roll contains 2.55 million registered electors.
Electoral System for the Legislative Council
The Legislative Council elected in September 1995 has 60 seats: 20 returned by geographical constituency elections, 30 by functional constituency elections, and 10 by an Election Committee. Hong Kong is divided into 20, single-seat geographical constituencies - four on Hong Kong Island, seven in Kowloon, and nine in the New Territories. The franchise for the Legislative Council geographical elections includes all electors on the General Electoral Roll. Electors may vote only in the constituency in which they are registered. They may, however, stand for election in any constituency, provided that they have been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for the preceding three years, have attained the age of 21, and are nominated by 50 electors in that constituency. The elections are by simple majority.
Each functional constituency represents an economic, occupational or professional group. These are: (1) primary production, power and construction; (2) textiles and garments; (3) manufacturing; (4) import and export; (5) wholesale and retail; (6) hotels and catering; (7) transport and communication; (8) financing, insurance, real estate and business services; (9) community, social and personal services; (10) commercial (first); (11); commercial (second); (12) industrial (first); (13) industrial (second); (14) finance; (15) labour; (16) social welfare; (17) tourism; (18) real estate and construction; (19) financial services; (20) medical; (21) education; (22) legal; (23) engineering; (24) health services; (25) accountancy; (26) architectural, surveying and planning; (27) Urban Council; (28) Regional Council; and (29) rural. Of these, the labour functional constituency returns two Legislative Council members while the other 28 return one member each.
The electorate is made up of relevant persons from designated organisations and trade unions, and working persons. A person who wants to be a functional elector has to be a geographical elector as well.
For functional constituency elections, a candidate must, besides satisfying the usual age and residential requirements, be a registered functional elector of or have a substantial connection with the relevant functional constituency. Each nomination requires 50 subscribers for the nine functional constituencies representing the working population (i.e. functional constituencies (1) to (9) in the preceding paragraph) and 10 for the other functional constituencies, except for the Urban Council and Regional Council functional constituencies which require only five subscribers due to their small electorates. Elections for the Urban Council, Regional Council and Rural functional constituencies are by preferential elimination, while elections for the other functional constituencies are by simple majority.
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