Hong Kong legislative elections

Legislative elections are held in Hong Kong every four years to elect members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) in accordance with Article 69 of the Basic Law. Legislative elections are held either at the expiry of a four-year term or when the Chief Executive dissolves the legislature and calls a new election.

The electoral methods for returning members to the Legislative Council have changed greatly and frequently over the years. Reforms to introduce democratic elections to the legislature first began in 1985, when the first indirect elections were held. At its peak in 2012 and 2016, 35 members of the then 70-seat legislature were returned by direct elections in the geographical constituencies, with the remaining 35 elected from functional constituencies.

Following the 2021 electoral changes, elections are now held in three different groups of constituencies, which together return 90 members to the legislature, only 20 of which are returned via direct elections in the geographical constituencies. The elections have long been criticised for being insufficiently democratic, with the low number of directly elected seats and the more recent large-scale disqualifications of opposition candidates often cited as posing major barriers to democratic participation.

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