Functional constituency (Hong Kong)

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 persons as well as other designated legal entities such as organisations and corporations.

The concept of functional constituencies in Hong Kong was first developed in the release of "Green Paper: A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong" on 18 July 1984. The paper suggested Legislative Council to create 24 seats with 12 seats from different professional interest groups including Urban Council, Regional Council, and District Council. The first functional constituency was not created until 1991 with 14 seats consist of Heung Yee Kuk, Urban Council, Regional, and 11 types of industry.

The 14 functional constituencies in 1991:

In 1992, Chris Patten suggested additional political reform by adding nine additional functional constituencies with much extended voter base to the existing system. The changes were implemented in the 1995 legislative election.

The 9 functional constituencies added in 1995:

After transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, the functional constituencies were increased to 28 consisting of the following:

The Labour constituency will return 3 seats and the others with one.

By 2000, the seat held by Urban Council and Regional Council were dissolved by Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, the two seats were replaced by Catering and District Council. The District Council would be renamed to District Council(First) by 2012, as a result of addition of a special Functional Constituenciy which also having candidates from District Council but a different range of electors, named District Council (Second).

Currently, only 40 of the 70 Legislative Council seats are directly elected by the majority of people (35 through geographical constituencies and 5 through District Council (Second) functional constituency), with the rest of 30 elected by 28 traditional functional constituencies.

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