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Constitution and Administration
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, has attained the age of 21, and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for the preceding three years.
Functional Constituencies
For the fifth-term Legislative Council, the functional constituencies are: (1) Heung Yee Kuk1; (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; (23) import and export; (24) textiles and garment; (25) wholesale and retail; (26) information technology; (27) catering; (28) District Council (first) and (29) District Council (second). The labour functional constituency returns three Legislative Council members and the District Council (second) functional constituency returns five Legislative Council members, while the other 27 functional constituencies return one member each.
The five seats of the District Council (second) functional constituency are returned with the whole of Hong Kong as a single constituency in accordance with the proportional representation list system. Candidates must be elected District Council members who are nominated by no less than 15 other elected District Council members; whereas electors are registered geographical constituency electors who are not registered in other functional constituencies.
The electorate of functional constituencies representing professional groups is generally based on membership of professions with recognised qualifications, including statutory qualifications. The electorate of functional constituencies representing economic or social groups is generally made up of corporate members of major organisations representative of the relevant sectors.
A candidate in a functional constituency must satisfy the same age and residential requirements as for a geographical constituency election, be a registered elector, and be a registered elector of, or have a substantial connection with, the relevant functional constituency. To give due recognition to the significant contribution made by foreign nationals and the fact that Hong Kong is an international city, permanent residents of the HKSAR who are not of Chinese nationality or who have right of abode in foreign countries may stand for election in 12 designated functional constituencies (functional constituencies 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23 above).
Over 1.83 million registered electors cast their votes at the election for the fifth-term Legislative Council on 9 September 2012, representing a turnout rate of 53 per cent.
1 Heung Yee Kuk is a statutory advisory body on New Territories affairs.