Legislative Council of Hong Kong Totally Explained

Everything about Hong Kong Legislative Council totally explained

The Legislative Council (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong.

History

The Legislative Council of Hong Kong was formed in 1843 under the authorization of Queen Victoria of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Hong Kong's first constitution, in form Queen Victoria's Letters Patent, entitled the Charter of the Colony of Hong Kong and authorized the establishment of the Legislative Council to advise the the Governor's administration. The Council had 4 Official Members when it was first established.
The first direct elections of the Legislative Council held in 1991.
In 1996, a Provisional Legislative Council‎ was unilaterally found in Guangzhou by People's Republic of China to replace Legislative Council after the transfer of the sovereignty. Legislative Council was suspended in 1997-1998 to give way to Provisional Legislative Council‎. However, the Provisional Council ceased operation within a year and the Legislative Council resumed its operation from 1998.

The Legislative Council Building

The Legislative Council of Hong Kong has been housed in the Old Supreme Court building in Central Hong Kong since 1985.
The statue on the Legislative Council Building is a replica of the one erected on the Old Bailey of London - a depiction of the goddess of justice, Themis, a legacy from the former Supreme Court.
Unlike many other former (or current) Commonwealth legislatures, the Hong Kong Legislative Council doesn't have a ceremonial mace placed in its chambers. However, the high courts of Hong Kong use a mace to open sessions and represents the authority and powers of the court.

Organisation

The term of office of a legislator is four years in length, except for the first term from 1998 to 2000 which was set at two years (Article 69, Basic Law).
In the 2004 election, 30 members were directly elected by universal suffrage from geographical constituencies (GC) and 30 were elected from functional constituencies. In the previous election in 2000, 24 were directly elected, 6 elected from an 800-member electoral college called the Election Committee of Hong Kong, and 30 elected from functional constituencies. The method of election after 2007 hasn't been specified. The Basic Law states that the ultimate aim is the election of all the Legco members by universal suffrage (Article 68 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong).
Private members' bills and motions have to be passed by majorities in both chambers of the legislature - members returned from geographical constituencies and election committee, and members returned from functional constituencies. This arrangement, however, isn't necessary for government bills, with only a simple majority required to secure passage. Meanwhile, amendments to the Basic Law require a two-thirds vote in LegCo for passage, but without a specific requirement in each chamber. After passing LegCo, the amendment must be approved by a supermajority of the same size among Hong Kong's delegates to the National People's Congress, and also the approval of the Chief Executive (since veto power is given to him).(Article 159, Basic Law)

Constituencies

Geographical constituencies

The GC seats are returned by universal suffrage. The voting system adopted in these electoral districts is a system of party-list proportional representation (PR), with seats allocated by the largest remainder method using the Hare quota as the quota for election. The system is widely considered to give representative legislatures. There were 3.06 million registered voters.

Geographical constituencies	No. of Seats
Geographical constituencies	1998	2000	2004
Hong Kong Island	4	5	6
Kowloon East	3	4	5
Kowloon West	3	4	4
New Territories East	5	5	7
New Territories West	5	6	8
Total	20	24	30

Functional constituencies

There are 28 functional constituencies (FC) represented in LegCo, representing various sectors of the community which were considered playing a crucial role in the development of Hong Kong.
In the 2000 election, 27 of the FCs returned 1 member, except the Labour functional constituency which returned 3 members, giving a total of 30 FC seats.

Rural Assembly
Agriculture and fisheries
Insurance
Financial services
Transport
Accountancy
Finance
Education
Legal
Information technology
Medical
Health services
Architectural, surveying and planning
Real estate and construction

Social welfare

Tourism

Commercial (first)

Commercial (second)

Industrial (first)

Industrial (second)

Import and export

Wholesale and retail

Textiles and garment

Sport, performing arts, culture and publication

Catering

District Council

Labour

A simple plurality system was used for 23 of the FCs, in which an eligible voter may cast one vote. The exceptions were Labour FC in which a voter may cast up to three votes, thereby creating a block vote, and the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance, and Transport FCs where a preferential elimination system was used due to the small number of voters. In the latter a voter must indicate preferences rather than approval/disapproval or a single choice.

Election Committee

10 LegCo members were returned by the Election Committee (EC) in the 1998 election, and 6 in the 2000 election, in accordance with Annex II of the Basic Law. Now this college of electors is used only to elect the Chief Executive. There are 800 members in the EC, coming from four sectors with 200 members each. (Basic Law, Ann.1, Sect. 2)

Industrial, commercial and financial sectors

The professions

Labour, social services, religious and other sectors

Members of the LegCo, representatives of district-based organisations, Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC), and representatives of Hong Kong members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Most of the 800 EC members were returned by earlier sub-sector elections. The 6 LegCo members were chosen by a "first-past-the-post" system, with each EC member casting a vote to choose exactly 6 candidates among themselves.

Presidents of the Legislative Council

From the Legislative Council's establishment in 1843 to 1993, the Governor had always been the President and Member of the Council, and until 1917 the Governor was required to acted with the advices but not necessary the consent of the Legislative Council. The Letters Patent of 1917 changed this by requiring the Governor to act "with advice and consent" of the Council.
The President is the speaker of the council. The current president (since 1997) is Rita Fan.

Members of the Legislative Council

The following table shows the distribution of council members and their political parties. For the list of current members of Legistative Council, see Hong Kong legislative election, 2004. All members of the LegCo is eligible to use the pre-fix The Honourable.

Seating arrangement

Members of the Legislative Council are seated to the left and front of the President's chair in the chambers. The three rows to the right are reserved for the secretaries and other civil servants of the government, and other people whom appear in the meetings.

Officers of the Legislative Council

Assisting the President are the officers of the Legco. The Clerk sits to the left of the President. The remaining officers at the large desk in the centre of the Council are the Deputy Clerk, Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General. While the Clerk faces the same direction as the President, the 3 remaining officer have chairs facing away from the President. When the CE (or Governor) is in Council, he or she'll address from either a podium in front of the President or to the right of the President.

Further Information

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