The 1995 Hong Kong Legislative Council election for members of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...

(LegCo) was held on 17 September 1995. It was the first, and only, fully elected legislative election in the colonial period before transferring Hong Kong's sovereignty to China two years later. The elections returned 20 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 30 members from indirectly elected

functional constituencies A functional constituency is an electoral device (a non-geographical constituency) used within the political systems of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: * Functional constituency (Hong Kong) * Functional cons ...

, and 10 members from elections committee constituency who were elected by all

District Board The district councils, formerly district boards until 1999, are the local councils for the 18 districts of Hong Kong. History Before establishment An early basis for the delivery of local services were the Kaifong associations, set up i ...

members. In consequence of

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

's constitutional reforms, which were strongly opposed by the Beijing government, the nine newly created functional constituencies enfranchised around 2.7 million new voters. As the tensions between Britain and China went on, Hong Kong became rapidly politicised. Party politics was getting in shape as the

Beijing-loyalist The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp, pro-government camp or pro-China camp refers to a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) t ...

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party in the ...

(DAB), the pro-business

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, the

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

and the middle-class and professional oriented

Hong Kong Progressive Alliance The Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) was a pro-Beijing, pro-business political party in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1994 and was merged into the Democratic Alliance ...

(HKPA) were set up and filled their candidates in the election. The pro-democracy forces won another landslide victory after the 1991 Legislative Council elections, sweeping 16 of the 20 directly elected seats in which the Democratic Party alone took 12 directly elected seats. The Democrats returned to the legislature with a total number of 19 seats, far ahead of the Liberal Party's 10, the DAB 6 and the pro-democracy

Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) is a Hong Kong pro-democracy social-liberal political party catering to grassroots interest with a strong basis in Sham Shui Po. Established on 26 October 1986, it was one ...

's (ADPL) 4 seats. ADPL young candidate Bruce Liu also defeated DAB chairman

Tsang Yok-sing Jasper Tsang Yok-sing ( zh, t=曾鈺成; born 17 May 1947) is a Hong Kong politician. He is the founding member of the largest pro-Beijing party the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) from 1992 to 2003 and ...

in Kowloon Central, along with many other DAB main candidates being defeated by pro-democrats. The pro-democrats controlled about half of the seats in the legislature and supported moderate Andrew Wong to become President of the Legislative Council. Since Beijing overthrew the promise of "through train" which guaranteed the legislature could travel through 1997 as the reaction to Chris Patten's reform, the legislature lasted for only 21 months and was replaced by the Beijing-controlled

Provisional Legislative Council The Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) was the interim legislature of Hong Kong that operated from 1997 to 1998. The legislature was founded in Guangzhou and sat in Shenzhen from 1996 (with offices in Hong Kong) until the handover in 1997 an ...

after the

handover of Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admini ...

, becoming the only pro-democracy legislature in history.

Background

The electoral bases were largely expanded under the 1994 Hong Kong electoral reform carried out by the last colonial governor

as the last step of democratisation as following: * Using the " single seat, single constituency" method for all three tiers of

geographical constituency In Hong Kong, geographical constituencies, as opposed to functional constituencies, are elected by all eligible voters according to geographically demarcated constituencies. There are currently 5 geographical constituencies in Hong Kong, returni ...

elections to the District Boards, Municipal Councils (

Urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and Regional Council) and Legislative Council; * Lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to 18; * Abolishing all appointed seats on the District Boards and Municipal Councils; * Removing all the restrictions on local deletes to China's

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

to stand for election; * Broadening the franchise of certain existing

by replacing corporate voting with individual voting; * Introducing nine new functional constituency seats; and * The introduction of an

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Ho ...

of District Board members, which would return 10 members to the Legislative Council using the single transferable vote. New nine functional constituencies with much larger eligible electorates was created to broaden the franchise to 2.7 million new voters: # Primary Production, Power and Construction # Textiles and Garment #

Manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

# Import and Export # Wholesale and Retail # Hotels and Catering # Transport and Communication # Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services # Community, Social and Personal Services

Overview

The

United Democrats of Hong Kong The United Democrats of Hong Kong (; UDHK) was a short-lived political party in Hong Kong founded in 1990 as the united front of the liberal democracy forces in preparation of the 1991 first ever direct election for the Legislative Council of ...

and the

Meeting Point Meeting Point ( Chinese: 匯點) was a liberal political organisation and party in Hong Kong formed by a group of former student activists in the 1970s and intellectuals for the discussion for the Sino-British negotiation on the question of Hon ...

, the two major pro-democracy forces had merged into the

in 1994, while the pro-business legislators had formed the

in 1993 and the pro-Chinese government politicians established the

(DAB), today's largest political party. Solicitor

Ambrose Lau Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen, GBS JP () (born 16 July 1947) was the chairman of the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA), a pro-business and pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), el ...

, in the direction of the

New China News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

founded the

which consisted of mostly pro-business factor of the CCP's united front. Other grassroots leaders were also encouraged by the CCP to stand in the election against the pro-democracy camp. Succeeding the last election in 1991, Democratic Party, together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the

pro-democracy camp The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic L ...

, had another landslide victory again, getting 16 of the 20 geographical constituency seats.

Allen Lee Allen Lee Peng-fei, CBE, JP (; 24 April 194015 May 2020) was a Hong Kong industrialist, politician and political commentator. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, serving from 1978 to 1997 and was the Senior Member of t ...

, the Chairman of the Liberal Party and the Appointed Member in the LegCo got elected in the geographical constituency direct election. The Chairman of the DAB,

however got defeated by Bruce Liu of pro-democracy

in Kowloon Central. The Government of the People's Republic of China overthrew the promise of the "through train" (letting the members elected in the 1995 election travel safely through 1997 and beyond) and set up the

in 1996, after the proposal package of electoral changes for the 1995 Legislative Council elections that was deemed unconstitutional by the PRC was passed in the Legislative Council.

General outcome

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan=2 colspan=3 , Political Affiliation ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=3 , Geographical
constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=3 , Functional
constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , Election
Committee
seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , Total
seats , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , width=1px rowspan=6 style="background-color:LightGreen;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 385,428 , 42.26 , 12 , 62,907 , 14.47 , 5 , 2 , 19 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) is a Hong Kong pro-democracy social-liberal political party catering to grassroots interest with a strong basis in Sham Shui Po. Established on 26 October 1986, it was one ...

, 87,072 , 9.55 , 2 , − , − , 1 , 1 , 4 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) was a pro-democracy labour and political group in the Hong Kong. It was established on 29 July 1990. It had 160,000 members in 61 affiliates (mainly trade unions in various sectors) and rep ...

, − , − , − , 42,565 , 9.79 , 1 , − , 1 , - , width=1px style="background-color:Black" , , style="text-align:left;" , United Ants , 18,551 , 2.03 , 0 , − , − , − , − , 0 , - , width=1px style="background-color:green" , , style="text-align:left;" , Democratic Labour Alliance , − , − , − , 33,596 , 7.73 , 0 , − , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Independent and others , 66,464 , 7.29 , 2 , 60,602 , 13.94 , 3 , 0 , 5 , - , -style="background-color:LightGreen" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pro-democracy camp , 557,515 , 61.13 , 16 , 199,670 , 45.93 , 10 , 3 , 29 , - , rowspan=7 style="background-color:Pink;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 15,216 , 1.67 , 1 , 74,355 , 17.10 , 9 , 0 , 10 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 142,801 , 15.66 , 2 , 42,767 , 9.84 , 2 , 2 , 6 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 25,964 , 2.85 , 0 , – , – , – , 1 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong The Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (, abbreviated 自民聯; LDF) was a pro-Beijing pro-business and conservative political party in Hong Kong. It was established in 1990, and was composed of mainly conservative businessmen and pr ...

, 11,572 , 1.27 , 0 , 4,986 , 1.15 , 0 , 1 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) is a pro-Beijing labour and political group established in 1948 in Hong Kong. It is the oldest and largest labour group in Hong Kong with over 420,000 members in 253 affiliates and associated ...

, − , − , − , 21,836 , 5.02 , 1 , − , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

New Hong Kong Alliance The New Hong Kong Alliance (, abbreviated 新港盟; NHKA) was a pro-Beijing conservative political organisation in Hong Kong in the 1990s mostly composed of businessmen and professionals. It was considered the more conservative wing of the Group ...

, − , − , − , − , − , 1 , − , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Independent and others , 90,495 , 9.92 , 0 , 64,499 , 14.84 , 4 , 1 , 5 , - , -style="background-color:Pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pro-Beijing parties , 286,048 , 31.37 , 3 , 208,443 , 41.34 , 16 , 5 , 24 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions , − , − , − , 533 , 0.12 , 1 , − , 1 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , 123 Democratic Alliance , − , − , − , − , − , − , 1 , 1 , - , width=1px style="background-color: " , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 ,

Civil Force Civil Force () is a district-based pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. Since 2014, the Civil Force has entered an alliance with the New People's Party of Regina Ip. Headed by chairman Pun Kwok-shan, it had its stronghold in the Sha Tin a ...

, 27,841 , 3.05 , 0 , – , – , – , 0 , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Hong Kong Alliance of Chinese and Expatriates , 3,979 , 0.44 , 0 , − , − , − , − , 0 , - , style="background-color:red", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Pioneer , 2,594 , 0.28 , 0 , − , − , − , − , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 ,

Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council The Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council is the third largest trade union federation in Hong Kong, after the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and pro-Beijing Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labou ...

, − , − , − , 262 , 0.06 , 0 , − , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Non-affiliated Independent and others , 33,974 , 3.73 , 1 , 25,798 , 5.93 , 3 , 1 , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Total (turnout 35.80%) , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 911,951 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 20 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 434,706 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 30 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 10 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 60

Vote summary

Seat summary

Result breakdown

Geographical Constituencies

Functional Constituencies

Election Committee Constituency

References

{{Hong Kong elections 1995 elections in Asia 1995 in Hong Kong

Legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

1995 elections in British Overseas Territories September 1995 events in Asia