2010 Hong Kong by-elections

2010 Hong Kong by-election

← 2008 16 May 2010 2012 →

5 Geographical Constituencies
in the Legislative Council
Turnout17.19%
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Audrey Eu Crystal Chow
and others
Party Civic/LSD Tertiary 2012
Alliance Five Constituencies Referendum N/A
Seats before 5 0
Seats after 5 0
Seat change Steady Steady
Popular vote 464,561 36,226
Percentage 82.96% 6.47%

Elected party by each constituency

Members before election

Tanya Chan (Civic)
Wong Yuk-man (LSD)
Alan Leong (Civic)
Albert Chan (LSD)
Leung Kwok-hung (LSD)

Elected Members

Tanya Chan (Civic)
Wong Yuk-man (LSD)
Alan Leong (Civic)
Albert Chan (LSD)
Leung Kwok-hung (LSD)

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]

  1. ^ Associated Press (11 March 2010), "Hong Kong, China debate legality of referendum" Archived 11 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Asian Correspondent. Retrieved on 5 April 2010.
  2. ^ a b c Fung, Fanny (19 January 2010), "Referendum bid is against Basic Law, minister says", South China Morning Post, Retrieved on 20 January 2010.
  3. ^ Leong, Alan (8 February 2010)"Quantifying Hong Kong's Democratic Desires" Archived 9 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine Wall Street Journal Retrieved on 21 January 2011.
  4. ^ "立法會補選五名辭職議員全部當選重返議會". Yahoo! Hong Kong. 17 May 2010. Archived from the original on 20 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  5. ^ "Hong Kong 'democracy' by-election held". BBC News. 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  6. ^ Cheng, Jonathan (16 May 2010). "Hong Kong Vote Was Test of Democracy". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2010.