District Council (Second)

Background

In the 2009, the government put forward the reform package of the election method of the 5th Legislative Council of Hong Kong in the 2012 LegCo election. Due to the resolution of the National People's Congress in 2007 the ratio of geographical constituency and functional constituency remained the same, the government's package suggested to add extra five seats in geographical constituency and functional constituency respectively. The five new functional constituency seats would be same as the District Council functional constituency, in which only district councillors could stand, nominate, and be elected.

The Democratic Party put forward a revised proposal suggesting only elected district councillors could be eligible to run in the new District Council constituency and the electorate should be expanded to all registered in Hong Kong. The Democratic Party's proposal was accepted by the central authorities. In 2010, the LegCo passed the Consultation Document on the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the LegCo in 2012 and the total 10 new seats in the sum of 5 seats of geographical constituencies and 5 seats of District Council (Second) functional constituency were created in the following 2012 LegCo election in September.

Electoral method

Only the elected members of the District Councils can become nominees and nominate candidates. Nominees have to get at least 15 nominations in order to run and are elected by all registered voters who are not the voters of other functional constituencies (including uncontested functional constituencies). The constituency covers all regions of Hong Kong.

Since most of the voters are not in the other functional constituencies, the District Council (Second) constituency is considered as a de facto direct election and the members elected is thus called the "Super District Councillors" or "5 Super Seats". The constituency is elected with the proportional representative method with largest remainder method.