17 September 1995 1996 → 16 seats, 52.35% New party 385,428 15,126 | Turnout 35.80% (GC) 3.35pp 4 5 42.26% 1.64% | |
 | ||
The 1995 Hong Kong Legislative Council election for members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) was held on 17 September 1995. It was the last and the first fully elected legislative election in the colonial period before transferring Hong Kong's sovereignty to China two years later. The elections returned 20 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 30 members from indirectly elected functional constituencies, and 10 members from elections committee constituency who were elected by all District Board members.
Contents
Due to Governor Chris Patten's constitutional reforms, which were strongly opposed by the Beijing government, the nine newly created functional constituencies enfranchised around 2.7 million new voters. As the arguments between Britain and China sparked, politics in Hong Kong became much more involved than previously in Hong Kong's history. New emerged parties, the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the pro-business Liberal Party and pro-democracy Democratic Party all filled up candidates to contest in the election.
The pro-democracy forces won another landslide victory after the 1991 Legislative Council elections, sweeping 17 of the 20 directly elected seats and about half of the seats in the legislature. The democrats controlled the legislature, which allowed Andrew Wong to become the only President of the Legislative Council from the pro-democracy camp. Since Beijing overthrew the promise of "through train" which guaranteed the legislature could travel through 1997 as the reaction to Chris Patten's reform, the pro-democracy legislature lasted for only 21 months and was replaced by the Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council.
Background
The electoral bases were largely expanded under the 1994 Hong Kong electoral reform carried out by the last colonial governor Chris Patten as the last step of democratisation as following:
New nine functional constituencies with much larger eligible electorates was created to broaden the franchise to 2.7 millions new voters:
- Agriculture, Fisheries, Mining, Energy and Construction
- Textiles and Garment
- Manufacturing
- Import and Export
- Wholesale and Retail
- Hotels and Catering
- Transport and Communication
- Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services
- Community, Social and Personal Services
Overview
The United Democrats of Hong Kong and the Meeting Point, the two major pro-democracy forces had merged into the Democratic Party in 1994, while the pro-business legislators had formed the Liberal Party in 1993 and the pro-Chinese government politicians established the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), today's largest political party.
Solicitor Ambrose Lau, in the direction of the New China News Agency founded the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance which consisted of mostly pro-business factor of the CCP's united front. Other grassroots leaders were also encouraged by the CCP to stand in the election against the pro-democracy camp.
Succeeding the last election in 1991, Democratic Party, together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the pro-democracy camp, had another landslide victory again, getting 17 of the 20 geographical constituency seats. Allen Lee, the Chairman of the Liberal Party and the Appointed Member in the LegCo got elected in the geographical constituency direct election. The Chairman of the DAB, Jasper Tsang however got defeated by Bruce Liu of pro-democracy ADPL in Kowloon Central.
The Government of the People's Republic of China overthrew the promise of the "through train" (letting the members elected in the 1995 election travel safely through 1997 and beyond) and set up the Provisional Legislative Council in 1996, after the proposal package of electoral changes for the 1995 Legislative Council elections that was deemed unconstitutional by the PRC was passed in the Legislative Council.