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 Delta ...

. 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, return ...

through direct elections, and 30 members by functional constituencies. 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 (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 (FTU) while the pro-business Liberal Party suffered a big defeat by losing the two heavyweights, chairman

James Tien James Tien is the name of: *James Tien (actor) (; born 1942), Hong Kong actor from Guangdong *James Tien (politician) (; born 1947), Hong Kong politician, former Liberal Party chairman and Legislative Council member *James M. Tien, American enginee ...

and vice-chairwoman Selina Chow lost their seats in the

New Territories East New Territories East is the eastern part of New Territories, covering North, Tai Po, Sha Tin, and Sai Kung District. History All districts except Sai Kung District have been connected by the Kowloon–Canton Railway (now East Rail line) since it ...

and the New Territories West. 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 retook the second largest party status despite losing one seat to its ally, the new middle-class oriented Civic Party which took two seats in

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...

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. 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, which would take place during this session.

Pre-election issues

The

Standing Committee of the National People's Congress The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...

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 A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. B ...

, 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 given ...

, 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 Leung Chin-man JP (, born 22 November 1945) is a retired senior civil servant in the Government of Hong Kong the former Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands. Government career Leung first joined the Immigration Department in Oc ...

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 DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * '' Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dą ...

. Two advocacy groups echoed abode-seekers' in being bombarded with telephone calls and other pressures to vote for the DAB, or for Regina Ip.

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 admin ...

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

of the Civic Party and Yeung Sum of the Democratic Party 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 Regina Ip 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. She ...

. 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 Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong 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, 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 Liberal Party suffered double defeat when Selina Chow and chairman

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 The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

'', 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 , 347,373 , 22.92 , 0.19 , 7 , 259 , 0.21 , ''N/A'' , 3 , 10 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Liberal Party , 65,622 , 4.33 , 2.39 , 0 , 4,089 , 3.34 , 1.37 , 7 , 7 , 3 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions , 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;" , Democratic Party , 312,692 , 20.63 , 4.56 , 7 , 41,331 , 33.80 , 3.15 , 1 , 8 , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Civic Party , 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 , 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 , 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 , 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 trad ...

, – , – , – , – , 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 Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions in the geographical constituencies exclude Wong Kwok-hing,

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 Ko ...

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 u ...

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 The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. T ...

Functional Constituencies (30 seats)

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