The 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 7 September 2008 for the 4th Legislative Council since the establishment of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. There were 60 seats in the 4th Legislative Council, with 30 members elected by

geographical constituencies 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 ...

through direct elections, and 30 members by

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 ...

. Candidates for 14 functional constituency seats were unopposed. The turnout rate was 45 percent with 1.51 million voters casting the ballots, about 10 percent lower than the previous election in 2004. The

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) remained the largest single party in the Legislative Council with 13 seats if including the two members of the

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 ...

(FTU) while 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 ...

suffered a big defeat by losing the two heavyweights, chairman James Tien and vice-chairwoman

Selina Chow Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee (; born 25 January 1945) is a former Hong Kong television executive and politician. She was a member of the Legislative Council for nearly three decades, and was also a member of the Executive Council. She is honorar ...

lost their seats in the New Territories East and the

New Territories West New Territories West (NTW) is the western part of Hong Kong's New Territories, covering Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing and the Islands District. History Settlements in the area, except the Islands District, have been connected by the ...

. The duo resigned from their party positions and Chow resigned from the Executive Council after the election, which was followed by a great split of the party. In the backdrop of a deteriorating economy and rising inflation, the pro-grassroots parties scored victories as the new pro-democracy party

League of Social Democrats The League of Social Democrats (LSD) is a social democratic party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Chan Po-ying, wife of Leung Kwok-hung, it positions itself as the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp and stresses on "street actions" and "parliame ...

(LSD) had their three candidates elected and the FTU also won in two seats in the geographical constituencies. The pro-democracy flagship party

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 ...

retook the second largest party status despite losing one seat to its ally, the new middle-class oriented

Civic Party The Civic Party (CP) is a pro-democracy liberal political party in Hong Kong. It is currently chaired by barrister Alan Leong. The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group, which was derived from the ...

which took two seats in Hong Kong Island with party leader

Audrey Eu Audrey Eu Yuet-mee is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and was founding leader of the Civic Party. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Civic Party, focusing on party development. In politics, Eu has fo ...

stood as the second candidate behind party's new face

Tanya Chan Tanya Chan (; born 14 September 1971) is a Hong Kong politician who served as a Legislative Councillor representing Hong Kong Island from 2008 to 2012, and again from 2016 to 2020. She is a founding member of the Civic Party. Chan is sometimes kn ...

. The share of the pan-democratic parties' vote among voters dropped from 60 percent in 2004 to 57 percent, which translated into a net loss of two seats compared to the last election. The pan-democrats were elected to a total of 23 seats, 19 seats in the directly elected geographical constituencies, and four seats from the functional constituencies. By virtue of having in excess of one-third of the seats in Legislative Council, their ability to veto constitutional changes remained intact. The pan-democrats' veto power was seen as crucial for the electoral arrangements for the

2012 Legislative Council election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, which would take place during this session.

Pre-election issues

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress vote in December 2007 to allow universal suffrage by 2017, and full Legislative Council elections by 2020, tempered the debate on universal suffrage. Wary of political parties, the government sought to defer discussion on other highly sensitive issues until October 2008, in the hopes that the election will be void of focus. The election was therefore fought over issues regarding the minimum wage, health care reform,

Old Age Allowance Old Age Allowance, colloquially known as fruit money, is a Hong Kong government programme introduced in 1973 which provides monthly payments of $1,290 to elderly Hong Kong residents. There is no means test for the Higher Old Age Allowance giv ...

, and the future of

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econo ...

. Also, the case surrounding former Housing Director Leung Chin-man served to highlight the issue of systematic checks and balances, and the lack of political scrutiny of government actions. Commentators, such as Albert Cheng, noted that the fighting between pro-democracy parties was heating up, but forecast few changes in the overall party standings of the new Council. He cited

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

as a mechanism, which built in protection for a multi-party system. There were some concerns that those seeking the right of abode in Hong Kong felt pressured by lobbyists supporting the DAB. Two advocacy groups echoed abode-seekers' in being bombarded with telephone calls and other pressures to vote for the DAB, or for

Regina Ip Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee (; ' Lau; born 24 August 1950) is a Chinese politician. She is currently the Convenor of the Executive Council (ExCo) and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), as well as the founder and current chair ...

Deputy ministers appointment controversy

Inflation relief measures

Leung Chin-man appointment controversy

Candidates

A total of 142 candidates on 53 lists entered the election via the geographical constituencies, making it the most contested election since 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 ...

. The candidates of both the pan-democracy and pro-Beijing coalitions stated that they would not allocate the votes within each camp, leading to infighting inside the caucuses.

Martin Lee Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship pro-democracy party. He ...

and

Anson Chan Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On-sang, (; ''née'' Fang; born 17 January 1940) is a retired Hong Kong politician and civil servant who was the first ethnic Chinese and woman to serve as Chief Secretary, the second-highest position in both ...

announced that they would not stand, and would endorse other candidates. In addition, some incumbent legislators such as

of the

and

Yeung Sum Yeung Sum (; born 22 November 1947 in Guangzhou) is a Hong Kong politician and academic. He served several terms as a Legislative Councillor and was the second chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), a pro-democracy political party in Hong ...

of the

were placed second on their lists in an attempt to get less experienced members of their parties elected. Beijing's involvement in the elections was an open secret: its strategy was to elect a new batch of "independent" aspirants with profession backgrounds and without a strong pro-Beijing image, such as Scarlet Pong, and eventual winners

and

Priscilla Leung Priscilla Leung Mei-fun (; born 18 November 1960, Hong Kong) is a barrister and Hong Kong Legislative Councillor, representing the Election Committee since 2022. She previously represented the Kowloon West constituency from 2008 to 2021. Sh ...

. It had hoped they would appeal to the middle class voters and steal votes from the pan-democratic parties.Chris Yeung, "Beijing's hand in polls is more of a ham fist", ''South China Morning Post'', Page A14 (17 September 2008) The functional constituencies were less competitive: 14 out of the 30 seats were uncontested. The Accounting and Architectural, Surveying and Planning functional constituencies were the most contested, with 5 candidates competing in each constituency. 45 candidates in total ran for the 16 contested seats.

Retiring incumbents

Ten incumbents chose not to run for re-election.

Opinion polling

Results

A record number of 3.37 million people registered to vote in the election. The turnout rate was low, at 45% with 1.51 million voters casting ballots. Commentator Chris Yeung believed that the Liaison Office operated behind the scenes to co-ordinate votes for the pro-Beijing camp. These independents managed to secure seats, but apparently not at the expense of support for the pan-democrats. The

remained the largest single party in Council, with 13 seats. The share of the pan-democratic parties' vote among voters dropped from 60% in 2004 to 57%, which translated into a net loss of 2 seats. The pan-democrats were elected to a total of 23 seats, 19 seats in the directly elected geographical constituencies, and four seats from the functional constituencies. By virtue of having in excess of of the seats in LegCo, their ability to veto constitutional changes remained intact. The pan-democrats' veto power were crucial for the electoral arrangements for the

2012 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2012. International * 2012 United Nations Security Council election Africa Egypt * 2012 Egyptian presidential election Mali * 2012 Malian presidential election * 2012 Malian parliamentary electio ...

, which will take place during this Council. In the backdrop of a deteriorating economy and rising inflation, voters shifted their preferences towards more radical and grass-roots politicians; the electorate's suspicions of collusion between government and big business dealt a blow to the Liberal Party. The

suffered double defeat when

and chairman James Tien lost their seats in the New Territories West and New Territories East geographical constituencies respectively. Their bid to secure seats in other constituencies also failed. Tien resigned as the Liberal Party's chairman after his defeat, and Chow resigned both her vice-chairmanship and her seat on the

Executive Council of Hong Kong The Executive Council of Hong Kong (ExCo) is the cabinet of the Government of Hong Kong, acting as a formal body of advisers to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong that serves as a core policy-making organ assisting the Chief Executive. It is ...

.Ambrose Leung, "Liberals' defeat raises doubt over trade-based seats stance", '' South China Morning Post'', Page A3, 9 September 2008 The election of three members of the League of Social Democrats and four trade-unionists to Legco is set to pose a challenge to the government on welfare and livelihood issues. Share of votes of the parties by polling stations: 2008 Hong Kong legislative election result by party

2008 Hong Kong legislative election result by party

Before election: Change in composition: , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan=2 colspan=3 , Parties and allegiances ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=4 , Geographical constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=4 , Functional constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , Total
seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 , ± , - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± pp ! 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;" , ± pp ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , rowspan=4 style="background-color:Pink;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress 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 ...

, 347,373 , 22.92 , 0.19 , 7 , 259 , 0.21 , ''N/A'' , 3 , 10 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 65,622 , 4.33 , 2.39 , 0 , 4,089 , 3.34 , 1.37 , 7 , 7 , 3 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 86,311 , 5.70 , 2.73 , 2 , – , – , – , 2 , 4 , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Pro-Beijing individuals and others , 103,162 , 6.81 , − , 2 , 33,633 , 27.50 , – , 14 , 16 , − , -style="background-color:Pink" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pro-Beijing camp , 602,468 , 39.75 , 2.35 , 11 , 37,981 , 31.06 , 1.47 , 26 , 37 , 3 , - , rowspan=10 style="background-color:LightGreen;width:4px;border-bottom-style:hidden;", , style="background-color:;width:4px", , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 312,692 , 20.63 , 4.56 , 7 , 41,331 , 33.80 , 3.15 , 1 , 8 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 207,000 , 13.66 , 7.04 , 4 , 9,187 , 7.51 , , 1 , 5 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 153,390 , 10.12 , ''N/A'' , 3 , – , – , – , – , 3 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre The Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre (NWSC) is a pro-democracy political group in Hong Kong, holding one seat in the Legislative Council from 1995 to 1997, and since 1998. It was founded in 1985, with its roots in the New Youth Study S ...

, 42,441 , 2.80 , 0.53 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , 0 , - , 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 ...

, 42,366 , 2.80 , 1.15 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , 0 , - , 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 ...

, 42,211 , 2.79 , 1.43 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , The Frontier , 33,205 , 2.19 , 4.70 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , 0 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Civic Act-up Civic Act-up () is a small pro-democracy camp, pro-democracy political group in Hong Kong. It was founded on 24 September 2003 by a group of relatively young activists with the encouragement of Legislative Councillor Cyd Ho, to challenge the exist ...

, 30,887 , 2.04 , 0.05 , 1 , – , – , – , – , 1 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union (HKSWGU) is a trade union for the social workers in Hong Kong. It was established in 1980. The current president, Cheung Kwok-che is the member in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is one of the trade ...

, – , – , – , – , 5,334 , 4.36 , 1.90 , 1 , 1 , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Pro-democracy individuals and others , 37,515 , 2.48 , − , 0 , 18,276 , 14.95 , – , 1 , 1 , − , -style="background-color:LightGreen" , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Total for pan-democracy camp , 901,707 , 59.50 , 2.94 , 19 , 74,128 , 60.62 , 2.19 , 4 , 23 , 3 , - , bgcolor="" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 , Councillors without formal affiliation with any political party , 11,304 , 0.75 , − , 0 , 10,173 , 8.32 , – , 0 , 0 , 0 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Total , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,515,479 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 30 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 122,282 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 30 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 60 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=13, , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Valid votes , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,515,479 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 99.42 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.20 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" rowspan="4" , , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 122,282 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 95.56 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.85 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3" rowspan="4" , , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Invalid votes , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 8,770 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.58 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.20 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,691 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 4.44 , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.85 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Votes cast / turnout , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,524,249 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 45.20 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 127,973 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 60.30 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 9.84 , - , style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", Registered voters , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 3,372,007 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5.14 , width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 212,227 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan=13 , ''Source
Hong Kong government
' Note: Candidates in 14 functional constituencies were elected uncontested to the Legislative Council. The number of seats for the

in the geographical constituencies exclude

Wong Kwok-hing Wong Kwok-hing BBS MH (, Vietnamese : ''Vương Quốc Hưng'' ; born 29 March 1949, Haiphong, North Vietnam) is a Hong Kong trade unionist and a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the New Territories West co ...

Wong Kwok-kin Wong Kwok-kin, BBS (黃國健; Yale: Wòhng Gwok Gihn; born May 1952) is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the Kowloon East constituency, and a former non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong ...

and Pan Pey Chyou, who are also DAB members; figures in parentheses in the pan-democracy and pro-Beijing total percentage exclude all votes of other individuals.

Votes summary

Seat summary

Incumbents defeated

Ten incumbents lost re-election

Candidates lists and results

Geographical Constituencies (30 seats)

Voting system:

Party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

with

largest remainder method The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with variou ...

and Hare quota.

Functional Constituencies (30 seats)

Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repre ...

, Agriculture and Fisheries,

Insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and

Transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the

first-past-the-post voting system In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

Notes

References

External links

Legislative Council of Hong Kong
{{Hong Kong elections L 2008 elections in China 2008 in Hong Kong Legislative Council of Hong Kong September 2008 events in China