The concept of functional constituencies (FC) in Hong Kong was first developed in the release of "Green Paper: A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong" on 18 July 1984 when indirect elections were introduced to the Legislative Council for the first time. The paper suggested that the Legislative Council create 24 seats with 12 seats from different professional interest groups. The 11 original functional constituencies created in 1985 were:
In 1988, the Financial constituency was enlarged into Financial and Accountancy constituencies and the Medical constituency was enlarged into Medical and Health Care constituencies respectively.
In 1991, the functional constituencies were more developed. With 9 directly elected geographical constituencies created, 20 functional constituencies consisting of 11 types of industry in which 7 new functional constituencies including Heung Yee Kuk, Urban Council and Regional Council were also set up.[1] The 7 new functional constituencies added in 1991 were:
In 1992, Chris Patten suggested additional political reform adding nine additional functional constituencies with a much expanded voter base to the existing system. The changes were implemented in the 1995 legislative election. The 9 new functional constituencies added in 1995 were:
After transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, there were 28 functional constituencies consisting of the following. Corporate voting was restored after it was abolished in 1995. It reduced the number of eligible voters by almost 90 percent, from over 1.1 million in 1995 to fewer than 140,000 in 1998:
The Labour constituency returns 3 seats and the others return one each.
By 2000, the seat held by Urban Council and Regional Council were dissolved by Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, the two seats were replaced by Catering and District Council. The District Council would be renamed to District Council (First) by 2012, as a result of the addition of a special Functional Constituency having candidates from District Council but with a different range of electors, named District Council (Second).
The electoral base is non-uniform, and there may be institutional votes or individual votes. Fourteen seats were uncontested in 2008; of the 16 contested seats, the number of electors, corporate and individuals combined, ranged from between 112 and 52,894 voters.[3] Four of the FC legislators – mostly those returned in fiercely contested elections – are aligned with the parties which support universal suffrage; two are independent and the rest (24) are pro-government.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) refers to the participation of the business block vote in the affairs of Hong Kong as "balanced participation". On 26 April 2004, the NPCSC published[4] its decision that:
Any change...shall conform to principles such as being compatible with the social, economic, political development of Hong Kong, being conducive to the balanced participation of all sectors and groups.
In 2021, the Government published details of the electoral base of the functional constituencies as follows:
Registered voters in the functional constituencies of Hong Kong in 2021[5]
Pro-democracy supporters criticise the functional constituency system for giving a minority too much power and influence. The right of corporations and legal entities to vote is also controversial, as it gives some individuals multiple votes. For example, in 1998, Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and companies he controlled held roughly 3-4% of the votes in the real estate constituency, according to an analysis by the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor; they described this as being equivalent in voting power to 15,940 people in a geographical constituency.[6][7]
In some functional constituencies, the entire body of eligible voters comprises legal entities that are not natural persons. This is known as corporate voting.
In 2009, there were applications for judicial review to challenge the legality of corporate voting on the grounds that it contravened the right to vote enshrined in Article 26 of the Basic Law or was discriminatory in nature.[8] Mr. Justice Andrew Cheung (as the Chief Justice then was) dismissed the applications, emphasising that his judgment was solely concerned with the constitutionality of corporate voting rather than the political wisdom of corporate voting or functional constituencies.[9]
There have been calls to abolish the functional constituencies from pan democrats. The May 2010 by-election was triggered by the resignation of 5 pan-democrats from the Legislative Council who put themselves up for re-election to the Legislative Council. The 'Five Constituencies Referendum' concept to use a by-election as a de facto referendum on universal suffrage and the abolition of functional constituencies was hatched by the League of Social Democrats.
Reform proposals
Following the consultations on the 2009 political reform package, where an additional five legislative seats for District Councils were proposed (in addition to Geographical seats) the government unveiled the revised package in mid-April 2010. It was proposed that the five additional Legco seats for the district council constituencies will be elected by proportional representation instead of block voting.[10] With the proposals looking likely to be vetoed, the Democratic Party said they would support the measures if the five new District Council functional seats, and the one existing seat, would return candidates nominated by district councillors and elected by all registered voters.[11]
^"Annex II – Method for the Formation of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Its Voting Procedures" (PDF). Xinhua. 30 March 2021. (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
^2008 Legislative Council Election 7 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Government of Hong Kong
^Decision of Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Issues Relating to the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the year 2007 and for Forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the year 2008, Hong Kong Government Regional Gazette, 26 April 2004
^Distribution of registered electors by functional constituencies in 2021,
^"Rights Group Attacks Electoral System", South China Morning Post, 4 December 1998
^, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, December 1998, archived from the original on 27 February 2009, retrieved 14 July 2009
^"Association France Hong Kong | A bridge between France & Hong Kong. A gateway to China". association-france-hongkong.org.
^"Chan Yu Nam v. Secretary for Justice". Retrieved 2 March 2010.
^Lee, Diana, (15 April 2010). 'Grab this golden chance' 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Standard
^Leung, Ambrose and Cheung, Gary (1 June 2010). "Democrats seek deal for support of reforms", South China Morning Post
External links
January 20, 2023
functional, constituency, hong, kong, this, article, about, political, group, hong, kong, other, uses, functional, constituency, disambiguation, political, systems, hong, kong, functional, constituency, professional, special, interest, group, involved, elector. This article is about political group in Hong Kong For other uses see Functional constituency disambiguation In the political systems of Hong Kong a functional constituency is a professional or special interest group involved in the electoral process Eligible voters in a functional constituency may include natural persons as well as other designated legal entities such as organisations and corporations See legal personality Contents 1 History 2 Present 3 Criticisms 4 Reform proposals 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory EditThe concept of functional constituencies FC in Hong Kong was first developed in the release of Green Paper A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong on 18 July 1984 when indirect elections were introduced to the Legislative Council for the first time The paper suggested that the Legislative Council create 24 seats with 12 seats from different professional interest groups The 11 original functional constituencies created in 1985 were First Commercial HKGCC Second Commercial CGCC First Industrial FHKI Second Industrial CMAHK Financial HKAB Labour 2 seats Social Services HKCSS Medical HKMA Teaching Legal Engineering Architectural Surveying and Planning In 1988 the Financial constituency was enlarged into Financial and Accountancy constituencies and the Medical constituency was enlarged into Medical and Health Care constituencies respectively In 1991 the functional constituencies were more developed With 9 directly elected geographical constituencies created 20 functional constituencies consisting of 11 types of industry in which 7 new functional constituencies including Heung Yee Kuk Urban Council and Regional Council were also set up 1 The 7 new functional constituencies added in 1991 were Engineering Real Estate and Construction Tourism Financial Services Urban Council Regional Council Rural In 1992 Chris Patten suggested additional political reform adding nine additional functional constituencies with a much expanded voter base to the existing system The changes were implemented in the 1995 legislative election The 9 new functional constituencies added in 1995 were Primary Production Power and Construction Textiles and Garment Manufacturing Import and Export Wholesale and Retail Hotels and Catering Transport and Communication Financing Insurance Real Estate and Business Services Community Social and Personal Services After transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 there were 28 functional constituencies consisting of the following Corporate voting was restored after it was abolished in 1995 It reduced the number of eligible voters by almost 90 percent from over 1 1 million in 1995 to fewer than 140 000 in 1998 Heung Yee Kuk Agriculture and Fisheries Insurance Transport Education Legal Accountancy Medical Health Services Engineering Architectural Surveying Planning and Landscape Labour 3 seats Social Welfare Real Estate and Construction Tourism Commercial First Commercial Second Industrial First Industrial Second Finance Financial Services Sports Performing Arts Culture and Publication Import and Export Textiles and Garment Wholesale and Retail Information Technology Urban Council Regional Council The Labour constituency returns 3 seats and the others return one each By 2000 the seat held by Urban Council and Regional Council were dissolved by Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa the two seats were replaced by Catering and District Council The District Council would be renamed to District Council First by 2012 as a result of the addition of a special Functional Constituency having candidates from District Council but with a different range of electors named District Council Second In 2021 the National People s Congress initiated a decision to change the electoral rule in Hong Kong As a result of this decision the five District Council Second seats were abolished alongside the District Council First and Information Technology constituencies while Health Services was merged with Medical to form the Medical and Health Service FC Three new constituencies were created namely the Commercial Third the Technology and Innovation and the HKSAR deputies to the National People s Congress HKSAR members of the National Committee of the Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference and representatives of relevant national organisations 2 The following table charts the evolution of functional constituencies of the LegCo Evolution of functional constituencies 1985 1988 1991 1995 1998 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2021FCs Urban Council Electoral College Urban Council FC District Council FC District Council First FC Regional Council Electoral College Regional Council FCCommercial First FCCommercial Second FCIndustrial FIrst FCIndustrial Second FCFinance FCLabour FCSocial Services FC 1985 95 Social Welfare FC 1995 Teaching FC 1985 95 Education FC 1995 Legal FCEngineering Architectural Surveying and Planning FC Architectural Surveying and Planning FC 1991 2016 Architectural Surveying Planning amp Landscape FC 2016 Engineering FC 1991 Medical FC Medical and Health Services FC with the Chinese Medicine sector included as electorate Health Care FC 1988 95 Health Services FC 1995 2022 Accountancy FC Real Estate and Construction FCTourism FCFinancial ServicesRural FC 1991 97 Heung Yee Kuk FC 1998 Agriculture Fisheries Mining Energy and Construction FC Agriculture and Fisheries FC Textiles and Garment FC Textiles and Garment FC Restricted Suffrage Manufacturing FC Import and Export FC Import and Export FC Restricted Suffrage Wholesale and Retail FC Wholesale and Retail FC Restricted Suffrage Hotels and Catering FC Catering FC Transport and Communication FC Transport FC Financing Insurance Real Estate and Business Services FC Insurance FC Community Social and Personal Services FC Sports Performing Arts Culture and Publication FCInformation Technology FC Technology and Innovation FC HK Deputies to NPC Members of CPPCC and Rep of Relevant National Organisations FCPresent EditUnder the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes 28 functional constituencies FC return 30 members The Labour Functional Constituency returns three members by plurality block voting The other FCs return one member each with first past the post voting The electoral base is non uniform and there may be institutional votes or individual votes Fourteen seats were uncontested in 2008 of the 16 contested seats the number of electors corporate and individuals combined ranged from between 112 and 52 894 voters 3 Four of the FC legislators mostly those returned in fiercely contested elections are aligned with the parties which support universal suffrage two are independent and the rest 24 are pro government The Standing Committee of the National People s Congress NPCSC refers to the participation of the business block vote in the affairs of Hong Kong as balanced participation On 26 April 2004 the NPCSC published 4 its decision that Any change shall conform to principles such as being compatible with the social economic political development of Hong Kong being conducive to the balanced participation of all sectors and groups In 2021 the Government published details of the electoral base of the functional constituencies as follows Registered voters in the functional constituencies of Hong Kong in 2021 5 vte Functional constituency Number of registered electorsBodies Individuals Total1 Heung Yee Kuk 161 1612 Agriculture and Fisheries 176 1763 Insurance 126 1264 Transport 223 2235 Education 85 117 85 1176 Legal 7 549 7 5497 Accountancy 27 778 27 7788 Medical And Health Service 55 523 55 5239 Engineering 10 772 10 77210 Architectural Surveying and Planning 9 123 9 12311 Labour 697 69712 Social Welfare 13 974 13 97413 Real Estate and Construction 463 46314 Tourism 192 19215 Commercial First 1 041 1 04116 Commercial Second 421 42117 Commercial Third 288 28818 Industrial First 421 42119 Industrial Second 592 59220 Finance 114 11421 Financial Services 760 76022 Sports Performing Arts Culture and Publication 257 25723 Import and Export 231 23124 Textiles and Garment 348 34825 Wholesale and Retail 2 015 2 01526 Technology and Innovation 73 7327 Catering 141 14128 HKSAR members of NPC and CPPCC representatives of national organisations 678 678Total 8 579 210 675 219 254Criticisms Edit The 2014 Hong Kong protests sought among other goals to abolish functional constituencies Pro democracy supporters criticise the functional constituency system for giving a minority too much power and influence The right of corporations and legal entities to vote is also controversial as it gives some individuals multiple votes For example in 1998 Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and companies he controlled held roughly 3 4 of the votes in the real estate constituency according to an analysis by the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor they described this as being equivalent in voting power to 15 940 people in a geographical constituency 6 7 In some functional constituencies the entire body of eligible voters comprises legal entities that are not natural persons This is known as corporate voting In 2009 there were applications for judicial review to challenge the legality of corporate voting on the grounds that it contravened the right to vote enshrined in Article 26 of the Basic Law or was discriminatory in nature 8 Mr Justice Andrew Cheung as the Chief Justice then was dismissed the applications emphasising that his judgment was solely concerned with the constitutionality of corporate voting rather than the political wisdom of corporate voting or functional constituencies 9 There have been calls to abolish the functional constituencies from pan democrats The May 2010 by election was triggered by the resignation of 5 pan democrats from the Legislative Council who put themselves up for re election to the Legislative Council The Five Constituencies Referendum concept to use a by election as a de facto referendum on universal suffrage and the abolition of functional constituencies was hatched by the League of Social Democrats Reform proposals EditFollowing the consultations on the 2009 political reform package where an additional five legislative seats for District Councils were proposed in addition to Geographical seats the government unveiled the revised package in mid April 2010 It was proposed that the five additional Legco seats for the district council constituencies will be elected by proportional representation instead of block voting 10 With the proposals looking likely to be vetoed the Democratic Party said they would support the measures if the five new District Council functional seats and the one existing seat would return candidates nominated by district councillors and elected by all registered voters 11 See also EditCorporatism Indirectly elected member Macau List of constituencies of Hong Kong Rotten and pocket boroughs Suffrage Business vote Vocational panels in IrelandReferences Edit Loh Christine Civic Exchange 1 March 2006 Functional Constituencies A Unique Feature of the Hong Kong Legislative Council Hong Kong University Press p 33 ISBN 978 962 209 790 2 Annex II Method for the Formation of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Its Voting Procedures PDF Xinhua 30 March 2021 Archived PDF from the original on 30 March 2021 Retrieved 30 March 2021 2008 Legislative Council Election Archived 7 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine Government of Hong Kong Decision of Standing Committee of the National People s Congress on Issues Relating to the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the year 2007 and for Forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the year 2008 Hong Kong Government Regional Gazette 26 April 2004 Distribution of registered electors by functional constituencies in 2021 Rights Group Attacks Electoral System South China Morning Post 4 December 1998 Corporate Voting is Highly Corrupt Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor December 1998 archived from the original on 27 February 2009 retrieved 14 July 2009 Association France Hong Kong A bridge between France amp Hong Kong A gateway to China association france hongkong org Chan Yu Nam v Secretary for Justice Retrieved 2 March 2010 Lee Diana 15 April 2010 Grab this golden chance Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Standard Leung Ambrose and Cheung Gary 1 June 2010 Democrats seek deal for support of reforms South China Morning PostExternal links EditLegislative Council of Hong Kong Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Functional constituency Hong Kong amp oldid 1105639807, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
