TNAG-2710-FCO40-3916-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-and-Par-1993 — Page 32

Political Parties

18. Although Hong Kong has had political parties for a number of years, their growth and proliferation is a recent

phenomenon, prompted by the first direct elections to the

Legislative Council (LegCo) in September 1991. Before that, political groups operated informally at local level or to lobby on specific issues.

19. The largest and most successful of the newer parties is the United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK), the so-called

liberals led by Mr Martin Lee. They won 45% of the vote and 12 of the 18 directly-elected seats, with 4 of the rest going to other liberal candidates. The smaller liberal parties are Meeting Point and the Association for Democracy and People's

Livelihood (ADPL), which have 5 LegCo seats between them.

Hong Kong Democratic Foundation (HKDF), which like the other

liberals, favours more democracy, has one functional

constituency seat.

20.

The

Business interests were represented first by the Liberal Democratic Federation (LDF), which won 5% of the vote in 1991

but no seats. After the 1991 elections, business and

professional interests in the Legislative Council, represented mainly by appointed and functional constituency members,

formed a group of about 20 members called the Co-operative

Resources Centre (CRC), led by Mr Allen Lee. The CRC has now turned itself into a political party called confusingly the Liberal Party, in order to prepare for the 1995 LegCo

elections. It has 15 members in LegCo, and wants good relations with China.

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