Functional Constituency (Hong Kong) - Present

Present

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

The Electoral base is non-uniform, and there may be instutitional votes, individual votes or a mixture of both. Approximately one third of members are theoretically returned each by corporate block vote only, a mixture of corporate and individual votes, and individuals only. In those sectors with mixed voting, four have a greater number of block votes than individual electors. Fourteen seats were uncontested in 2008; of the 16 contested seats, the number of electors, corporate and individuals combined, ranged from between 112 and 52,894 voters. Four of the FC legislators – mostly those returned in fiercely contested elections – are aligned with the parties which support universal suffrage; two are independent and the rest (24) are pro-government.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) refers to the participation of the business block vote in the affairs of Hong Kong as "balanced participation". On 26 April 2004, the NPCSC published its decision that:

"Any change...shall conform to principles such as being compatible with the social, economic, political development of Hong Kong, being conducive to the balanced participation of all sectors and groups"

In 2009, the Government published details of the electoral base of the functional constituencies as follows:

Functional Constituency No. of Registered Electors
Bodies Individuals Total
1 Heung Yee Kuk 155 155
2 Agriculture and Fisheries 160 160
3 Insurance 141 141
4 Transport 178 178
5 Education 88,964 88,964
6 Legal 6,022 6,022
7 Accountancy 22,089 22,089
8 Medical 10,493 10,493
9 Health Services 36,491 36,491
10 Engineering 8,261 8,261
11 Architectural, Surveying and Planning 6,117 6,117
12 Labour 597 597
13 Social Welfare 12,293 12,293
14 Real Estate and Construction 441 286 727
15 Tourism 1,236 1,236
16 Commercial (First) 1,040 1,040
17 Commercial (Second) 748 1,066 1,814
18 Industrial (First) 715 0 715
19 Industrial (Second) 805 805
20 Finance 132 132
21 Financial Services 578 578
22 Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication 2,060 155 2,215
23 Import and Export 875 619 1,494
24 Textiles and Garment 3,579 130 3,709
25 Wholesale and Retail 1,829 4,168 5,997
26 Information Technology 364 5,383 5,747
27 Catering 582 7,414 7,996
28 District Council (First) 425 425
TOTAL 16,060 210,531 226,591

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