Hong Kong by-election, 2010
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Referendum Movement
Civic Party
League of Social Democrats
Referendum Movement
Civic Party
League of Social Democrats
The 2010 Hong Kong by-election was an election held on 16 May 2010 in Hong Kong, triggered by the resignation of five pan-democrat Legislative Councillors in January of the same year.
Discussions among the pan-democrats commenced in July 2009 for five legislators to resign to force a territory-wide by-election. The plan, which they dubbed the Five Constituencies Referendum (五區公投) or Five Constituencies Resignation (五區總辭), involved one pan-democratic legislator resigning from each of the five geographical constituencies, thereby triggering a by-election in which all Hong Kong citizens could participate. Although the Basic Law of Hong Kong does not provide for official referenda, the pan-democrats hope that by returning the resignees to the Legislative Council, on their manifesto of real political reform in Hong Kong and the abolition of functional constituencies, the election can be seen as a de facto referendum and an endorsement of these issues. The five LegCo members resigned their seats on 21 January 2010 with the by-election taking place on 16 May 2010.
The vote count was finalised by 2 am on 17 May 2010. Following a boycott by the pro-government parties, the five who resigned were successfully returned to the Legislative Council by voters. The by-election has been criticised as a waste of taxpayers' money.
According to Annex II of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong is elected by an 800-person election committee, consisting of appointees from four different sectors. The Legislative Council (LegCo) consists of 60 seats, 30 of which are geographical constituencies, subject to popular mandate; the remaining 30 seats are returned by functional Constituencies, which are elected by a much smaller pool of voters consisting of corporate bodies and workers in the various sectors. The 800 Election Committee members are appointees. The existing electoral arrangement, which allows a person belonging to a stipulated sector to control more than one vote, has been denounced by Human Rights Monitor as "highly corrupt".
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