1995 Hong Kong legislative election

Hong Kong legislative election, 1995

7 September 1995
All 60 seats to the Legislative Council
First party Second party Third party   Leader Martin Lee Allen Lee Jasper Tsang Party Democratic Liberal DAB Alliance Pro-democracy Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Leader's seat Island East New Territories Northeast Kowloon Central (lost) Last election 13 seats, 82.38% new new Seats before 15 15 1 Seats won 19 (12 GCs + 5 FCs + 2 EC) 10 (1 GC + 9 FCs) 6 (2 GCs + 2 FCs + 2 EC) Seat change 4 5 5 Popular vote 385,428 15,126 142,801 Percentage 41.9% 1.6% 15.7%
Elected candidates by each geographical constituency ■ – DP ■ – DAB ■ – ADPL ■ – LP ■ – Independent
President before election Sir John Joseph Swaine Nonpartisan Elected President Andrew Wong Independent

The 1995 Hong Kong Legislative Council general election for members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) was held on 7 September 1995. It was the last legislative election of the colonial Hong Kong government before transferring Hong Kong's sovereignty to China two years later. The elections returned 20 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 30 members from functional constituencies, and 10 members from elections committee.

Background

Main article: 1994 Hong Kong electoral reform

The electoral bases were largely expanded under the 1994 Hong Kong electoral reform carried out by the last colonial governor Chris Patten as the last step of democratisation as following:

• Using the "single seat, single constituency" method for all three tiers of geographical constituency elections to the District Boards, Municipal Councils (Urban and Regional Council) and Legislative Council;
• Lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to 18;
• Abolishing all appointed seats on the District Boards and Municipal Councils;
• Removing all the restrictions on local deletes to China's National People's Congress to stand for election;
• Broadening the franchise of certain existing functional constituencies by replacing corporate voting with individual voting;
• Introducing nine new functional constituency seats; and
• Introducing of an Election Committee comprising of District Board members return 10 members to the Legislative Council.

New nine functional constituencies with much larger eligible electorates was created to broaden the franchise to 2.7 millions new voters:

1. Agriculture, Fisheries, Mining, Energy and Construction
2. Textiles and Garment
3. Manufacturing
4. Import and Export
5. Hotel and Catering
6. Transport and Communication
7. Financial, Insurance and Real Estate Services
8. Public, Social and Personal Services

Overview

The United Democrats of Hong Kong and the Meeting Point, the two major pro-democracy forces had founded the Democratic Party in 1994, while the pro-business legislators had formed the Liberal Party in 1993 and the Communist-controlled politicians established the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), today's largest political party.

Solicitor Ambrose Lau, in the direction of the New China News Agency founded the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance which consisted of mostly pro-business factor of the CCP's united front. Other grassroots leaders were also encouraged by the CCP to stand in the election against the pro-democracy camp.

Succeeding the last election in 1991, Democratic Party, together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the pro-democracy camp, had another landslide victory again, getting 17 of the 20 geographical constituency seats. Allen Lee, the Chairman of the Liberal Party and the Appointed Member in the LegCo got elected in the geographical constituency direct election. The Chairman of the DAB, Jasper Tsang however got defeated by Bruce Liu of pro-democracy ADPL in Kowloon Central.

The Government of the People's Republic of China overthrew the promise of the "through train" (letting the members elected in the 1995 election travel safely through 1997 and beyond) and set up the Provisional Legislative Council in 1996, after the proposal package of electoral changes for the 1995 Legislative Council elections that was deemed unconstitutional by the PRC was passed in the Legislative Council.

General Outcome

For details by LegCo members, see List of Legislative Council of Hong Kong members elected in 1995.

Vote summary

Ring charts of the election results showing popular vote against seats won, coloured in party colours. Seats won in the election (outer ring) against number of votes (inner ring).

Popular vote Democratic Party   41.9% DAB   15.4% HKADPL   9.5% Liberal Party   1.6% Others   31.6%