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 person In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the bro ...

s as well as other designated legal entities such as organisations and corporations. (See:

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...

ality)

History

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: * First Commercial ( HKGCC) * Second Commercial ( CGCC) * First Industrial ( FHKI) * Second Industrial ( CMAHK) * Financial ( HKAB) *

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

(2 seats) * Social Services ( HKCSS) *

Medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

( HKMA) *

Teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely ...

Legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

* Engineering, Architectural, Surveying and Planning In 1988, the Financial constituency was enlarged into Financial and

Accountancy Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "langua ...

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 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 ...

, Urban Council and Regional Council were also set up. The 7 new functional constituencies added in 1991 were: *

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* Real Estate and Construction *

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

Financial Services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

* Regional Council *

Rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

In 1992,

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 ...

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 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 After

transfer of sovereignty over 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 ...

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: *

* 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 ...

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 ...

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

* Health Services *

* Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape *

(3 seats) *

Social Welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

* Real Estate and Construction *

* Commercial (First) * Commercial (Second) *

Industrial (First) The Industrial (First) functional constituency () is a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong first created in 1985. The constituency is composed of corporate members of the Federation of Hong Kong Indu ...

Industrial (Second) The Industrial (Second) functional constituency () is a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicamer ...

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

* Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication * Import and Export * Textiles and Garment * Wholesale and Retail *

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

* * 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 Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chi ...

, the two seats were replaced by

Catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

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 District Council (Second) functional constituency () was a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong which was created in the 2012 constitutional reform package. It was the largest functional constituen ...

.
In 2021, the

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 ...

initiated a decision to change the electoral rule in Hong Kong. As a result of this decision, the five

seats were abolished alongside the

District Council (First) The District Council (First) functional constituency (), formerly called District Council until 2012, was a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Its electorate consists of all 431 directly elected mem ...

and

constituencies, while Health Services was merged with

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 (constituency), 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. The following table charts the evolution of functional constituencies of the LegCo:

Present

Under 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 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 ...

. 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. 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 its decision that: In 2021, the Government published details of the electoral base of the functional constituencies as follows:

Criticisms

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 Established in 1971, Sino Group () comprises three listed companies – Sino Land Company Limited (HKSE: 083), Tsim Sha Tsui Properties Limited (HKSE: 0247), Sino Hotels (Holdings) Limited (HKSE: 1221) – and private companies held by the Ng Fa ...

chairman

Robert Ng Robert Ng Chee Siong (; born 1952) is a Singaporean billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Hong Kong property development conglomerate Sino Group since 1991.Simplified Chinese version anTraditional Chinese version He is the eldest son o ...

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 The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor (HKHRM) () is a local non-governmental organisation which was established in April 1995. It aims to promote better human rights protection in Hong Kong. The organisation is concerned about issues like Nationa ...

''; they described this as being equivalent in voting power to 15,940 people in a geographical constituency. 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 Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

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. Mr. Justice

Andrew Cheung Andrew Cheung Kui-nung (; born 24 September 1961) is a Hong Kong judge who serves as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal. He previously served as a Permanent Judge of the same court. He was the 4th and longest-serving Chief J ...

(as the Chief Justice then was) dismissed the applications, emphasising that his judgment was solely concerned with the

constitutionality Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

of corporate voting rather than the political wisdom of corporate voting or functional constituencies. 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.Lee, Diana, (15 April 2010)
'Grab this golden chance'
, ''The Standard'' 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.Leung, Ambrose and Cheung, Gary (1 June 2010). "Democrats seek deal for support of reforms", ''South China Morning Post''

References

External links