Constitution and Administration 9
The Electoral System
Electoral System for the Legislative Council
The composition of the first three terms of the Legislative Council as set out in the Basic Law is as follows:
Membership
(a) elected by geographical
First term (1998-2000)
Second term (2000-2004)
Third term (2004-2008)
20
24
30
constituencies through direct elections
(b) elected by functional
30
30
30
constituencies
(c) elected by an election
10
6
committee
60
60
81
60
Geographical Constituency
Geographical constituency elections are held on the basis of universal suffrage. All eligible persons aged 18 or above have the right to be registered as electors and to vote in the elections. There are currently about 3.3 million registered electors.
The HKSAR is divided into five geographical constituencies of four to eight seats in the third term of the Legislative Council. Voters choose lists of candidates, using the List Voting System which operates under the Largest Remainder formula, a form of proportional representation. Under this system, each list may consist of any number of candidates up to the number of seats in the relevant constituency. An elector is entitled to cast one vote for a list in the constituency in which he or she is registered. The seats for the constituency are distributed among the lists according to the number of votes they get.
Any permanent resident of the HKSAR who is a Chinese citizen with no right of abode in any foreign country may stand for election in any geographical constituency, provided that he or she is a registered elector on the Final Register, has attained the age of 21, and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for the preceding three years.
Functional Constituency
Each functional constituency represents an economic, social, or professional group important to the HKSAR. For the third-term Legislative Council, these are: (1) Heung Yee Kuk; (2) agriculture and fisheries; (3) insurance; (4) transport; (5) education; (6) legal; (7) accountancy; (8) medical; (9) health services; (10) engineering; (11) architectural, surveying and planning; (12) labour; (13) social welfare; (14) real estate and construction; (15) tourism; (16) commercial (first); (17) commercial (second); (18) industrial (first); (19) industrial (second); (20) finance; (21) financial services; (22) sports, performing arts, culture and publication;