Hong Kong concluded its Legislative Council general election late Sunday, December 7, with millions eligible to cast ballots across 615 ordinary polling stations operating from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. While final tallies are ongoing, preliminary figures released Sunday night indicated a slight uptick in voter engagement compared to the previous cycle, though the overall number of votes remains lower.
By 10:30 p.m., the turnout rate within geographical constituencies reached 31.43%. This figure represents a modest 1.23 percentage point increase over the 30.20% final turnout recorded in the last election. Despite this percentage gain, the cumulative count of ballots cast reached 1,298,261 by the same evening deadline, approximately 50,000 fewer votes than the 1,350,680 recorded in the entirety of the previous poll.
Counting Procedures and Early Outcomes
Following the closure of polling sites, the electoral system transitioned into the crucial phase of verification and counting. The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Erick Tsang, alongside Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) Chairman Arthur Luk Yee-shun, were on hand to oversee the official opening of ballot boxes and subsequent counting procedures. This central operation took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre acting as the main counting center.
Attention immediately focused on the results from the Election Committee constituency, the first outcomes to be finalized. The Electoral Affairs Commission began announcing these initial results in the early hours of Monday, December 8.
Around 1:00 a.m., the preliminary results confirmed that several established lawmakers had secured their seats via the Election Committee constituency. Notables re-elected included Yiu Pak-leung, who received the highest number of votes in this constituency with 1,397. Following closely was Chan Hoi-yan with 1,386 votes. Other successful incumbents securing mandates were Steven Ho, Peter Douglas Koon, Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, and Priscilla Leung.
Understanding the Electoral Context
The Legislative Council (LegCo) elections are critical in determining the composition of Hong Kong’s legislative body, which is responsible for enacting laws and scrutinizing government policies. The recent electoral amendments have redefined the scope and representation within the council, focusing on three streams of members: geographical constituencies, functional constituencies, and the Election Committee constituency.
The slightly higher turnout percentage in the geographical segments suggests sustained interest among the general electorate, despite the overall reduction in ballots compared to the complete count of the last legislative election. Analysts will continue to scrutinize the demographic breakdown of the preliminary results to assess the shifting mandates and voter priorities throughout the city.
The full impact of this election hinges on the final results of all geographical and functional constituencies, which are expected to be announced over the course of Monday. These outcomes will set the legislative agenda for the coming years and define the political landscape within the Special Administrative Region. Media organizations and political groups will closely monitor the remaining announcements to understand the new distribution of seats and the mandate granted to the incoming LegCo members.