Hong Kong’s ‘patriots only’ Legislative Council: Tracking the opposition-free legislature in 4 charts

Hong Kong’s “patriots only” Legislative Council (LegCo) finished its four-year term last week. The opposition-free legislature now awaits a race in December that will decide its next 90 lawmakers, whose new term will start in January. The seventh LegCo took office in January 2022, after Beijing imposed an electoral overhaul in 2021 to ensure only “patriots” could hold power in Hong Kong. It became the first post-1997 legislature that did not have a single opposition lawmaker. “The executive-legislative relationship has returned to rationality, with the administration and the legislature acting under the principles of executive-led governance and patriots ruling Hong Kong,” Chief Executive John Lee said in Cantonese earlier this month at a high-level seminar on LegCo’s performance. “This LegCo has demonstrated a high standard of policy debate and efficiency.” Lee was drawing a comparison to the legislature before the 2021 overhaul. At that time, opposition lawmakers – from the city’s pan-democrat camp – held as many as 29 seats in the then 70-strong LegCo. Attempts to block controversial government bills through filibustering and defiant speeches were commonplace. Without such confrontations, this LegCo has been lauded by government officials for its efficiency and productivity. But it has also drawn criticism about the perceived lack of political diversity, with critics saying that the patriots-only LegCo has become a rubber-stamp legislature. HKFP tracks the performance of the seventh LegCo and compares it with its predecessors before the 2021 patriotic shake-up. 130 bills passed, 1 rejected During its four-year term, the patriots-only LegCo passed 130 bills into law and voted down only one bill. Among the bills passed is the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, Hong Kong’s homegrown security law, also known as “Article 23.” The bill was unanimously passed on March 19, 2024, and came into force four days later. In a rare move, LegCo president Andrew Leung also voted yes, breaking with the tradition that the legislature leader refrains from voting to preserve neutrality. Leung said at that time that it was a demonstration of how “everyone is responsible for safeguarding national security” in Hong Kong. It was also the only time he ever voted for a bill during his nine-year tenure as LegCo leader. The Registration of Same-sex Partnership Bill was the only bill voted down during this LegCo term. The bill, which would have granted same-sex couples registered overseas limited rights such as medical care and post-death arrangements, heavily divided lawmakers, with 71 opposing the bill, 14 supporting, and one abstaining from the vote last month. Two lawmakers were absent. HKFP has accessed the Legislative Council database and counted the number of bills passed and failed to pass – either being voted down by lawmakers or the government stopping the legislative process – during each LegCo term. This LegCo ranks as the third most productive in passing bills – behind only the first two LegCo terms after the 1997 Handover. It is also the second most agreeable term with the government – behind only the third LegCo between 2004 and 2008, when no bill was vetoed at all. ‘Not a rubber stamp’ Defenders of the patriots-only LegCo, like its president Leung, have seized on the vetoing of the same-sex partnership bill, saying it showed lawmakers were not merely a rubber stamp for government bills. “If we are a rubber stamp, why would we vote it down?” Leung said at a press conference after the final LegCo meeting last week. However, when it comes to passing laws, the seventh LegCo broke the record for the most efficient in approving bills. On average, lawmakers took 104.5 days for a bill to be gazetted and passed at its third reading. Article 23 is the fastest ever passed in the legislature’s history, with LegCo calling for off-schedule meetings to scrutinise the fast-tracked bill. The legislation was gazetted and became law in just 11 days. Speaking at the press conference last week, Leung said that the Safeguarding National Security Bill also served as proof that the legislature was not a rubber stamp. He pointed to the 50-odd hours that lawmakers spent scrutinising it, with the government eventually accepting most of the suggestions from LegCo and proposing 91 amendments to the bill’s provisions. “If [LegCo] is a rubber stamp, why waste time? You just come in, present first reading, second reading, straight away resume third reading, and put a stamp on [the bill],” he said. With a quicker pace in approving bills, it appears that lawmakers have not been opposing the government at the voting stage. Normally, LegCo’s voting procedure relies on a show of hands, with the LegCo president declaring if more than half of those present in a legislative meeting are in favour of a bill or a motion. Individual lawmakers’ voting preferences would not be recorded. Registered voting – which requires the votes of each lawmaker to be kept on record – is only conducted when a LegCo member requires it. This voting method, which takes a long time for the vote to be counted and recorded, was employed by opposition lawmakers as a filibustering tactic. During the fifth LegCo term from 2012 to 2016 and the sixth term from 2016 to 2021, a total of 285 and 222 government motions were voted on using registered voting, respectively, according to an HKFP tally. Without opposition in the chamber, only 42 government motions were voted on under registered voting during the seventh LegCo term. The records, however, still reflect the voting patterns of the lawmakers. One seat in the 90-strong legislature was left vacant after legislator Stephen Wong joined the government in December 2022. Among the 89 sitting lawmakers, 17 never opposed a government motion. In contrast, 56 legislators voted “no” only once, while merely 16 rejected more than once. The most rejections came from two lawmakers from the pro-business Liberal Party, Frankie Yick and Peter Shiu, who voted “no” 13 and 11 times, respectively. The pair were followed by Doreen Kong, who opposed government motions on seven occasions. Outgoing lawmakers A nomination period is currently underway for the December 7 elections, the second polls since the 2021 electoral overhaul. As of Tuesday afternoon, 28 lawmakers had said they would opt out of the December race and not seek re-election, comprising nearly one-third of the legislators. All of the 12 septuagenarian lawmakers have bowed out, including LegCo heavyweights Leung, Michael Tien, and Regina Ip, following rumours of an age limit for the upcoming term to exclude candidates aged 70 and above. It is not immediately clear why younger lawmakers are not seeking re-election. Local media have reported on speculations that some of them are perceived as underperforming or “too outspoken.” So far, no lawmaker who opted out of the December race has said that they were pressured to do so. Among the 90 legislative seats up for grabs, 20 will be from the directly elected geographical constituencies; 30 from special interest groups known as functional constituencies, and 40 from a powerful election committee, which is also responsible for choosing Hong Kong’s leader. During the 2021 legislative elections, voter turnout was 30.2 per cent – the lowest in the history of LegCo elections since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Since then, the number of registered voters in Hong Kong has dropped for four straight years, with the latest figure standing at over 4.13 million this year. In comparison, at its peak in 2021, there were 4.47 million registered voters. In March 2021, Beijing passed legislation to ensure “patriots” govern Hong Kong. The move 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 it makes it near-impossible for pro-democracy candidates to stand. The electoral overhaul boosted the total number of LegCo seats from 70 to 90, while slashing the number of directly elected seats in the geographical constituencies from 35 to 20.