Hong Kong will begin accepting nominations on October 24 to fill 90 seats on the Legislative Council (LegCo) for the December elections – the second polls held after Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system.
The two-week nomination period closes at 5pm on November 6, the Registration and Electoral Office (REO) said on Friday.
The December 7 polls will be the second LegCo elections since Beijing passed a resolution in 2021 to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure only “patriots” hold power in the legislature.
The 90 legislative seats comprise 20 seats from geographical constituencies; 30 seats filled by representatives from special interest groups known as “functional constituencies”; and 40 from the Election Committee, the powerful electoral body that chooses the city’s chief executive and also holds seats in the legislature.
Required endorsements
All legislative hopefuls need endorsements from their constituents, the REO said. In addition, there are also different requirements depending on which seats they are contesting.
The office said that candidates vying for one of the 20 seats in the geographical constituency – the only category of lawmaker voted for by the public – must be endorsed by at least 100 voters in their district, but no more than 200.
Functional constituency hopefuls must be endorsed by at least 10, but no more than 20, electors from the special interest group they are seeking to represent in the legislature. Those groups include corporations and real estate developers, as well as the welfare and medical sectors, among others.
Hopefuls for the geographical and functional constituencies must also be endorsed by at least 10, but no more than 20, members of the Election Committee
For the Election Committee constituency, each nominee must be endorsed by at least 10, but no more than 20, members of the committee itself.
China’s top legislature enacted the overhaul following the 2019 District Council elections, during which Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp secured a landslide victory. The polls were widely viewed as a de facto referendum on the 2019 protests and democratic representation.
Higher dissatisfaction, lower participation
However, dissatisfaction with the legislature has increased since the electoral overhaul.
A survey conducted by the PoD Research Institute – a think tank formerly known as Path of Democracy – in June showed that around 50 per cent of respondents were unhappy with LegCo, up from 48 per cent of dissatisfaction recorded in a January-February survey.
Ronny Tong, convenor of the PoD Research Institute, said in March that the high dissatisfaction rate could be attributed to the perception that lawmakers showed a passive attitude when scrutinising bills and made speeches only to appease Beijing.
Meanwhile, the number of registered voters in Hong Kong has dropped for a fourth straight year ahead of the December polls. According to the 2025 electoral register, a total of 4,138,992 people are registered as voters in the city’s geographical constituencies.
To comply with the 2021 resolution, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau stipulates that all LegCo hopefuls will be subject to a candidate eligibility review, which includes a vetting procedure by a high-level national security committee.
The 2021 resolution reduced democratic representation in the legislature, tightened control of elections and introduced a pro-Beijing vetting panel to select candidates.
The Hong Kong government said the overhaul would ensure the city’s stability and prosperity. But the changes also prompted international condemnation, as they have made it nearly impossible for pro-democracy candidates to stand.
