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5 Geographical Constituencies in the Legislative Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 17.19% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elected party by each constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Politics and government of Hong Kong |
Related topics Hong Kong portal |
The 2010 Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election was an election held on 16 May 2010 in Hong Kong for all five geographical constituencies of the Legislative Council (LegCo), triggered by the resignation of five pan-democrat Legislative Councillors in January of the same year.[1]
Discussions among the pan-democrats commenced in July 2009 for five legislators to resign to force a territory-wide by-election.[2] 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.[2] Although the Basic Law of Hong Kong does not provide for official referendums, 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,[2] the election can be seen as a de facto referendum and an endorsement of these issues.[3] 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 with only turnout rate of 17.1%.[4] The by-election has been criticised as a waste of taxpayers' money.[5][6]