The 1998 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 24 May 1998 for members of the 1st Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in 1997. Replacing the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) strictly controlled by the Beijing government and boycotted by the pro-democracy camp, the elections returned 20 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 10 seats from the Election Committee constituency and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 10 were uncontested.

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

1998 Hong Kong legislative election

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All 60 seats to the Legislative Council 31 seats needed for a majority
Registered	2,795,371 (GC)
Turnout	1,489,705 (53.29%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Martin Lee Allen Lee Tsang Yok-sing Party Democratic Liberal DAB Alliance Pro-democracy Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Leader's seat Hong Kong Island New Territories East (defeated) Kowloon West Last election 19 seats, 42.26% 10 seats, 1.64% 6 seats, 15.66% Seats won 13 10 9 Popular vote 634,635 50,335 373,428 Percentage 42.87% 3.40% 25.23% Swing 0.61pp 1.76pp 9.57pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ambrose Lau Emily Lau Christine Loh Party HKPA Frontier Citizens Alliance Pro-Beijing Pro-democracy Pro-democracy Leader's seat Election Committee New Territories East Hong Kong Island Last election 1 seat, 2.85% Did not contest Did not contest Seats won 5 3 1 Popular vote Did not run in GCs 148,507 41,633 Percentage N/A 10.03% 2.81% Swing N/A New party New party
Elected candidates by each constituency
Party control before election Pro-Beijing camp Party control after election Pro-Beijing camp

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Taking the advantage of the proportional representation system installed by Beijing, the pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the weaker side compared to the more developed pro-democratic party, the Democratic Party recorded a clearer increase in the number of seats in the election.^[1]

The Democratic Party returned to the Legislative Council as the largest party with 13 seats, while the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, a pro-democratic party joined. The Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council lost all its seats.

The electoral method for the first Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was crafted by the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) installed by the Beijing government during the intense Sino-British confrontation over the democratic reform carried out by the last colonial governor Chris Patten.^[2] According to the Hong Kong Basic Law promulgated by Beijing in April 1990, the first legislature would be composed of 60 members, with 20 members returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections, 10 members returned by an election committee and 30 members returned by functional constituencies.

For the geographical constituencies, A proportional representation system was adopted by the SAR government in replacement of the first-past-the-post system introduced in 1995. Under the system Hong Kong was divided into five large districts instead of 20 small ones, with voters in each district choosing three to five persons from candidate lists. It was designed to reward the weaker pro-Beijing candidates and dilute the electoral strength of the majority democrats.^[3]

For the functional constituencies, the corporate voting was restored after it was abolished in 1995. It reduced the number of eligible voters by almost 90 percent, from over 1.1 million in 1995 to fewer than 140,000 in 1998. There were also vast disparities in the number of eligible voters among the functional constituencies, ranging from highs of approximately 50,000 in the Education constituency to a few hundred or less in the Agriculture and Fisheries Transport, Insurance, Urban Council and Regional Council constituencies.

For the election committee, the 10 seats would be elected by the 800-member Election Committee, successor to the 400-member Selection Committee which elected the SAR's first Chief Executive in 1996. The committee was predominantly composed of conservative, pro-Beijing business, industrial and professional elites.^[4]

The proportional representation system induced the contesting parties to practice strategic voting, effectively turning what would have been otherwise a proportional electoral system into single non-transferable vote, to encourage split voting among their supporters. In New Territories East, Martin Lee's Democratic Party reportedly advised its supporters to split their family members' votes between the Democratic Party and its ally The Frontier to help ensure of a third pro-democracy candidate. In Hong Kong Island, the Democratic Party picked a relatively unknown candidate in the third place of its party list, a move reportedly intended to help Christine Loh of the pro-democratic Citizens Party to finish ahead of the second candidate Ip Kwok-him of the rival pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).^[5]

The 1998 election is the first election after the Handover in 1997. Some observers believed the generally free and fair election was crucial for the consolidation of the newly established HKSAR and the political setting of "one country, two systems" after widespread criticism on the PLC.^[8]