Present
Currently, only 40 of the 70 Legislative Council seats are directly elected by the majority of people (30 through geographical constituencies and 5 through District Council (Second) functional constituency), with the rest of 30 elected by 28 traditional functional constituencies.
The Electoral base is non-uniform, and there may be instutitional votes, individual votes or a mixture of both. Approximately one third of members are theoretically returned each by corporate block vote only, a mixture of corporate and individual votes, and individuals only. In those sectors with mixed voting, four have a greater number of block votes than individual electors. Fourteen seats were uncontested in 2008; of the 16 contested seats, the number of electors, corporate and individuals combined, ranged from between 112 and 52,894 voters. Four of the FC legislators – mostly those returned in fiercely contested elections – are aligned with the parties which support universal suffrage; two are independent and the rest (24) are pro-government.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) refers to the participation of the business block vote in the affairs of Hong Kong as "balanced participation". On 26 April 2004, the NPCSC published its decision that:
"Any change...shall conform to principles such as being compatible with the social, economic, political development of Hong Kong, being conducive to the balanced participation of all sectors and groups"
In 2009, the Government published details of the electoral base of the functional constituencies as follows:
| Functional Constituency | No. of Registered Electors | |||||||
| Bodies | Individuals | Total | ||||||
| 1 | Heung Yee Kuk | 155 | 155 | |||||
| 2 | Agriculture and Fisheries | 160 | 160 | |||||
| 3 | Insurance | 141 | 141 | |||||
| 4 | Transport | 178 | 178 | |||||
| 5 | Education | 88,964 | 88,964 | |||||
| 6 | Legal | 6,022 | 6,022 | |||||
| 7 | Accountancy | 22,089 | 22,089 | |||||
| 8 | Medical | 10,493 | 10,493 | |||||
| 9 | Health Services | 36,491 | 36,491 | |||||
| 10 | Engineering | 8,261 | 8,261 | |||||
| 11 | Architectural, Surveying and Planning | 6,117 | 6,117 | |||||
| 12 | Labour | 597 | 597 | |||||
| 13 | Social Welfare | 12,293 | 12,293 | |||||
| 14 | Real Estate and Construction | 441 | 286 | 727 | ||||
| 15 | Tourism | 1,236 | 1,236 | |||||
| 16 | Commercial (First) | 1,040 | 1,040 | |||||
| 17 | Commercial (Second) | 748 | 1,066 | 1,814 | ||||
| 18 | Industrial (First) | 715 | 0 | 715 | ||||
| 19 | Industrial (Second) | 805 | 805 | |||||
| 20 | Finance | 132 | 132 | |||||
| 21 | Financial Services | 578 | 578 | |||||
| 22 | Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication | 2,060 | 155 | 2,215 | ||||
| 23 | Import and Export | 875 | 619 | 1,494 | ||||
| 24 | Textiles and Garment | 3,579 | 130 | 3,709 | ||||
| 25 | Wholesale and Retail | 1,829 | 4,168 | 5,997 | ||||
| 26 | Information Technology | 364 | 5,383 | 5,747 | ||||
| 27 | Catering | 582 | 7,414 | 7,996 | ||||
| 28 | District Council (First) | 425 | 425 | |||||
| TOTAL | 16,060 | 210,531 | 226,591 | |||||
Read more about this topic: Functional Constituency (Hong Kong)
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—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)