The 2004 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 12 September 2004 for members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The election returned 30 members from directly elected geographical constituencies and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 11 were unopposed.

Quick Facts All 60 seats to the Legislative Council 31 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...

2004 Hong Kong legislative election

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All 60 seats to the Legislative Council 31 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	3,207,227 (GC) 4.97%
Turnout	1,784,406 (55.64%) 12.07pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ma Lik James Tien Yeung Sum Party DAB Liberal Democratic Alliance Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Pro-democracy Leader's seat Hong Kong Island New Territories East Hong Kong Island Last election 11 seats, 28.40% 7 seats, 1.88% 13 seats, 31.74% Seats won 12 10 9 Seat change 2 2 2 Popular vote 454,827 118,997 445,988 Percentage 25.49% 6.72% 25.19% Swing 2.91pp 4.84pp 6.47pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Emily Lau Frederick Fung Lau Chin-shek (ran as independent) Party Frontier ADPL CTU Alliance Pro-democracy Pro-democracy Pro-democracy Leader's seat New Territories East Kowloon West Kowloon West Last election 2 seats, 6.78% 1 seat, 4.75% 2 seats, 7.33% Seats won 1 1 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 121,900 74,671 69,844 Percentage 6.89% 4.22% 3.95% Swing 0.11pp 0.53pp 3.38pp   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Leung Kwok-hung Leung Yiu-chung Ambrose Lau Party April Fifth Action NWSC HKPA Alliance Pro-democracy Pro-democracy Pro-Beijing Leader's seat New Territories East New Territories West Retired from Election Committee Last election 0 seat, 1.38% 1 seat, 4.50% 4 seats, 1.95% Seats won 1 1 0 Seat change 1 4 Popular vote 60,925 59,033 14,174 Percentage 3.44% 3.33% 0.80% Swing 2.06pp 1.17pp 1.15pp
Result by parties and camps Result by parties
Party control before election Pro-Beijing camp Party control after election Pro-Beijing camp

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An unprecedented number of 3.2 million people registered to vote in the election. The turnout rate was an unprecedented 55.6% with 1,784,406 voters casting ballots, beating the previous record set in 1998 by 200,000 votes.^[1] While pro-democratic opposition candidates gained new seats in the legislature, their gains fell short of their expectations.

In the geographical constituencies, candidates from the pro-democratic camp secured 60 percent of the seats in the geographical sectors of the election, taking 18 seats (up from 17) in this category, and 62 percent of the popular vote. On the other hand, the pro-Beijing and pro-business candidates made greater gains, winning 12 directly elected seats (up from 7). In the functional constituencies which the pro-democratic camp sought to abolish, the camp made more gains (from 5 to 7 seats).

Overall, the democrats took 25 seats and the pro-government camp 35 seats. Bills initiated by the government can still be passed on pro-government support alone, but bills originated by members cannot be passed without democratic support, since these bills require absolute majorities in each sector (geographical and functional) of the legislature.^[2] Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote and thereby also require support from the democratic camp.

Despite the increase in the number of seats returned by geographical constituencies and the record turnout, the Democratic Party lost the status of being the largest political party in the Legislative Council to the pro-government Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, DAB, who secured 12 seats if including the two members who ran under the banner of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, and pro-business Liberal Party who secured 10 seats, thereby becoming only the third-largest party. Some attributed the poor performance of the pro-democratic camp to tactical miscalculation in vote allocation. This was not helped by some of the democratic parties' personal scandals.

The pro-Beijing and pro-business parties succeeded in retaining the majority in the legislature. However, pro-democracy candidates have maintained the threshold to block changes, if necessary, to the Basic Law of Hong Kong, since a two-thirds vote is required for amendment. The current Legislative Council also saw the entry of more radical members of the democratic camp.

According to the Annex II of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the 6-seat Election Committee constituency indirectly elected by the 800-member Election Committee would be abolished, while the directly elected geographical constituency seats would increase from 24 to 30,^[3] same number of the indirectly elected functional constituencies. As a result, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East was added one extra seat each, from five to six and four to five respectively, and the New Territories West and New Territories East was added two extra seats each, from six to eight and five to seven respectively, while the number of seats in Kowloon West remained four.

The election came amidst the deteriorating governance and intense debates over constitutional reforms in Hong Kong. The Tung Chee-hwa administration had been embattling with economic recession brought by the 1997 financial crisis and the more prominent SARS outbreak in 2003. Nevertheless, the Tung administration push forward the controversial Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 legislation which outlawed "treason" and "subversive activities" and raised concerns on its potential threats against Hong Kong people's civil liberties. A group of barristers formed the Basic Law Article 23 Concern Group and rallied against the national security legislation. Over 500,000 people to protested on 1 July 2003, the sixth anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, against the legislation, the largest demonstration since the handover.^[4] The Article 23 legislation further crippled the Tung administration as the government saw its popularity dropped to a new low. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the largest pro-Beijing party saw its largest defeat in the District Council elections in November 2003, which alarmed the Beijing and the Hong Kong government.

The Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law state that the method for selecting the Chief Executive and for forming the Legislative Council could be amended after 2007. The pro-democracy camp argued that the third term of Chief Executive and fourth term of Legislative Council should be elected on the basis of universal suffrage in 2007 and 2008 as stipulated in the Article 45 and 68 of the Basic Law respectively.^[5] In 2004, the Article 23 Concern Group transformed into the Article 45 Concern Group calling for the early implementation of the universal suffrage. Facing the pro-democracy pressure for full democratisation, in April 2004, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) ruled out the 2007/08 universal suffrage.

With the cancellation of the Election Committee constituency, there were total of twelve incumbents chose not to run for re-election. Ip Kwok-him lost his seat in the Central and Western District Council therefore was not qualified for running in the District Council functional constituency.

Before election:

Change in composition:

More information Parties and allegiances, Geographical constituencies ...

Summary of the 12 September 2004 Legislative Council of Hong Kong election results

Parties and allegiances			Geographical constituencies				Functional constituencies				Total seats	±
			Votes	%	±pp	Seats	Votes	%	±pp	Seats
		Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong	402,420	22.73	5.67	8	–	–	–	2	10	0
		Liberal Party	118,997	6.72	4.84	2	6,126	4.71	0.25	8	10	2
		Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions	52,564	2.97	N/A	1	566	0.44	N/A	2	3	2
		Hong Kong Progressive Alliance	14,174	0.80	1.15	0	17	0.01	0.14	0	0	4
		New Century Forum	4,511	0.25	1.35	0	–	–	–	–	0	1
		Pro-government individuals and others	69,306	3.92	–	1	36,313	27.91	–	11	12	−
Total for pro-Beijing camp			661,972	37.40	2.46	12	43,022	33.07	6.78	23	35	4
		Democratic Party	445,988	25.19	6.47	7	48,323	37.15	8.48	2	9	2
		Article 45 Concern Group	117,216	6.62	N/A	3	2,597	2.00	N/A	1	4	2
		The Frontier	121,900	6.89	0.11	1	–	–	–	–	1	1
		Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood	74,671	4.22	0.53	1	–	–	–	–	1	0
		Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions	69,844	3.95	3.38	1	–	–	–	–	1	0
		April Fifth Action	60,925	3.44	2.06	1	–	–	–	–	1	1
		Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre	59,033	3.33	1.17	1	–	–	–	–	1	0
		Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union	–	–	–	–	3,199	2.46	N/A	0	0	0
		Pro democracy individuals and others	155,812	8.80	–	3	27,594	21.21	–	4	7	−
Total for pro-democracy camp			1,105,388	62.44	1.88	18	81,713	62.81	7.00	7	25	4
	Non-partisan individuals and others		2,830	0.16	–	0	5,351	4.11	–	0	0	−
Total			1,770,190	100.00		30	130,086	100.00		30	60	0
Valid votes			1,770,190	99.22	0.08		130,086	96.41	0.25
Invalid votes			13,941	0.78	0.08		4,849	3.59	0.25
Votes cast / turnout			1,784,131	55.63	12.06		134,935	70.14	13.64
Registered voters			3,207,227	100.00	4.97		192,374	100.00	18.00
Source turnout: Electoral Affairs Commission. 11 candidates in 11 functional constituencies were elected unopposed to the Legislative Council.

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Note: For the joint list of pro-democrats in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East and New Territories East, the votes are divided equally to each candidate.