 Legislative Council Building The Legislative Council of Hong Kong (立法會, abbreviated LegCo) is the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
History
Formed as a colonial legislature under the British, the first direct elections of LegCo took place in 1991.
The Legislative Council of Hong Kong has been housed in the Old Supreme Court building in Central since 1985.
The statue on the LegCo building is a replica of the one erected on the Old Bailey of London. It is the goddess of justice, Themis. It was a left-over from the former Supreme Court.
Organisation
The term of office is four years, except for the first term from 1998 to 2000 which was 2 years.
In the 2000 LegCo election, 24 members were directly elected from geographical constituencies (GC), 6 were elected from a 800-strong electoral college called the Election Committee, and 30 were elected from functional constituencies. In the next election in 2004, 30 will be directly elected and 30 will be elected from functional constituencies. The method of election after 2007 has not 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).
Private members' bills and motions have to be passed by both groups of members - members returning from geographical constituencies and election committee, and members returning from functional constituencies. This arrangement, however, is not necessary for government bills.
Constituencies
Geographical constituencies
The GC seats are returned by universal suffrage. The voting system adopted in GC is List Proportional Representation (PR) using Hare quota, which is considered to contribute to proportionality in assembly. There were 3.06 million registered voters.
Functional constituencies
(c.f. Business votes in the City of London)
There are 28 functional constituencies (FC) in the 2000 LegCo election, 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.
- Heung Yee Kuk
- 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 "First past the post" system was used for 23 FCs, in which an eligible voter may cast one vote. The exceptions were Labour FC in which a voter may cast three votes, 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 his/her choice in descending order of preference.
Election Committee
6 LegCo members were returned by the Election Committee (EC). There are 800 members in the EC, coming from four sectors with 200 members each:
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.
See also
External Links
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