ENG-2007 — Page 41

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;