Hong Kong Legislative Election, 2008 - General Outcome

General Outcome

For details by LegCo members, see List of LegCo members elected in Hong Kong legislative election, 2008.

A record number of 3.37 million people registered to vote in the election. The turnout rate was low, at 45% with 1.51 million voters casting ballots.

Commentator Chris Yeung believed that the Liaison Office operated behind the scenes to coordinate votes for the pro-Beijing camp. These independents managed to secure seats, but apparently not at the expense of support for the pan-democrats.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong remained the largest single party in Council, with 13 seats. The share of the pan-democratic parties' vote among voters dropped from 60% in 2004 to 57%, which translated into a net loss of 2 seats. The pan-democrats were elected to a total of 23 seats, 19 seats in the directly elected geographical constituencies, and four seats from the functional constituencies. By virtue of having in excess of ⅓ of the seats in LegCo, their ability to veto constitutional changes remained intact. The pan-democrats' veto power were crucial for the electoral arrangements for the 2012 elections, which will take place during this Council.

In the backdrop of a deteriorating economy and rising inflation, voters shifted their preferences towards more radical and grass-roots politicians; the electorate's suspicions of collusion between government and big business dealt a blow to the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party suffered double defeat when Selina Chow and Chairman James Tien lost their seats in the New Territories West and New Territories East geographical constituencies respectively. Their bid to secure seats in other constituencies also failed. Tien resigned as the Liberal Party's chairman after his defeat, and Chow resigned both her vice-chairmanship and her seat on the Executive Council of Hong Kong. The election of three members of the League of Social Democrats and four trade-unionists to Legco is set to pose a challenge to the government on welfare and livelihood issues.

Share of votes of the parties by District Council constituencies:

Democratic Party	Civic Party	League of Social Democrats
DAB	FTU

Before election:

↓

26	34
Pro-democracy	Pro-Beijing

Change in composition:

↓

23	37
Pro-democracy	Pro-Beijing

e • d Summary of the 7 September 2008 Legislative Council of Hong Kong election results

Parties and allegiances			Geographical constituencies				Functional constituencies Seats gained	Total seats gained	+/−
			Popular vote	%	+/−	Seats gained
		Democratic Party	312,692	20.63	−4.56	7	1	8	−1
		Civic Party	207,000	13.66	N/A	4	1	5	−1
		League of Social Democrats	153,390	10.1	N/A	3	0	3	+1
		Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre	42,441	2.8	−0.53	1	0	1	±0
		Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions	42,366	2.8	−1.15	1	0	1	±0
		Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood	42,211	2.79	−1.39	1	0	1	±0
		The Frontier	33,205	2.19	−4.7	1	0	1	±0
		Civic Act-up	30,887	2.04	−0.05	1	0	1	+1
		Pro-democracy individuals and others	37,515	2.48	−	0	2	2	−
Total for pan-democrats			901,707	59.50	−2.43	19	4	23	−2
		Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong	347,373	22.92	+0.19	7	3	10	+1
		Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions	86,311	5.70	+2.73	2	2	4	+1
		Liberal Party	65,622	4.33	−2.39	0	7	7	−3
		Pro-Beijing individuals and others	103,162	6.81	−	2	14	16	−
Total for pro-Beijing camp			602,468	39.75	+2.46	11	26	37	+2
Councillors without formal affiliation with any political party			11,304	0.75	−	0	0	0	±0
Total (turnout 45.20%)			1,515,479	100.0	±0	30	30	60	±0

Note: Candidates in 14 functional constituencies were elected uncontested to the Legislative Council. The number of seats for the Federation of Trade Unions in the geographical constituencies exclude Wong Kwok-hing, Wong Kwok-kin and Pan Pey Chyou, who are also DAB members; figures in parentheses in the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing total percentage exclude all votes of other individuals.