The 2018 Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election was held on 11 March 2018 for four of the six vacancies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) - the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East geographical constituencies and the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency - resulting from the disqualification of six pro-democrat and localist camp Legislative Council members over the 2016 oath-taking controversy. The by-election for the two other seats was not held due to pending legal appeals by the two disqualified legislators.

The pro-democrats and pro-Beijing camp each won two seats in the election. Independent democrat Au Nok-hin replaced Demosistō's Agnes Chow - whose candidacy was rejected before the election - won in Hong Kong Island, and the Neo Democrats' Gary Fan retook his seat in New Territories East, while pro-Beijing nonpartisan Tony Tse, who was defeated in his 2016 re-election bid, regained the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape seat, and Vincent Cheng of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) caused an upset in Kowloon West by narrowly defeating independent democrat Yiu Chung-yim who lost his seat in the oath-taking controversy, making it the first time the pro-Beijing camp received a greater vote share than the pro-democrats in a geographical constituency since 2000 and the first time a pro-Beijing candidate won in a geographical constituency by-election since 1992.

The vote share of the pro-democracy camp dropped significantly from the traditional level of around 55 per cent to only 47 per cent, with a low turnout of 43 per cent. As a result, the pro-Beijing camp maintained its dominance in the geographical constituencies following the oath-taking disqualification with a one-seat majority.

Background

The 2016 Legislative Council election saw the emergence of the newly founded localist camp legislators elected to the Legislative Council, including Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching of the pro-independence Youngspiration, as well as Nathan Law of the Demosistō and nonpartisans Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu who ran under the banner of the "democratic self-determination".

On 12 October 2016 the inaugural meeting of LegCo, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching used the oath-taking ceremony as a platform to protest, by claiming that "as a member of the Legislative Council, I shall pay earnest efforts in keeping guard over the interests of the Hong Kong nation," displaying a "Hong Kong is not China" banner, and mispronouncing "People’s Republic of China" as "people’s re-fucking of Chee-na". Their oath were invalidated by the clerk and the controversy caused a huge backlash among the Hong Kong public. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen took the unprecedented step of launching a judicial review seeking the disqualification of the duo.

On 7 November, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) controversially interpreted Article 104 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong to "clarify" the requirements that the legislators need to swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China when they take office, stating that "who intentionally reads out words which do not accord with the wording of the oath prescribed by law, or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn" should be barred from taking their public office and cannot retake the oath. As a consequence, the High Court disqualified Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching on 15 November. On 25 August 2017, the Court of Final Appeal rejected a final bid by Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching.

On 2 December, Leung Chun-ying and Rimsky Yuen lodged another judicial review against Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai, Leung Kwok-hung and Yiu Chung-yim who also added words into or changed their tones when reading the oaths during the ceremony. As a result, the High Court ruled the four pro-democracy legislators were to lose their seats on 14 July 2017.

The government announced the date of the by-election for four of the six constituencies would be on 11 March 2018. Nevertheless, the by-elections of the other seat in Kowloon West and New Territories East after the disqualification of Lau Siu-lai and Leung Kwok-hung would not be held as the duo are seeking for appeal. Lau and Leung were seeking for appeals strategically to avoid the by-election of both two seats in Kowloon West and New Territories East to be held together, which would give pro-Beijing camp the advantage to take at least one seat away from the pro-democrats in each constituency.

Pro-democracy primary In order to maximise the chance of pro-democracy camp, the Power for Democracy initiated a co-ordination of the pro-democracy candidates in elections. It held a primary in Kowloon West and New Territories East, where more than one pro-democrats were interested in running from December 2017 to January 2018. The primary was conducted in three parts: telephone polls, a generic ballot vote on 14 January 2018 and voting by parties and civil groups that participated in the primary. The first two parts counted for 45 per cent each, and the last part counted for 10 per cent in the final result.

In Kowloon West, the candidates were Frederick Fung of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), Ramon Yuen of the Democratic Party, Occupy activist Ken Tsang and disqualified legislator Yiu Chung-yim, which Tsang subsequently withdrew from the primary to support Yiu; in New Territories East, the candidates were Gary Fan of the Neo Democrats, Kwok Wing-kin of the Labour Party and former president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Students' Union Tommy Cheung.

Primary results More than 26,000 registered voters cast their ballots in the 14 January primary, 12,438 of which turned out at the three polling stations in Kowloon West and 13,699 turned out for at five polling stations in New Territories East. Yiu Chung-yim and Gary Fan received the most votes in the generic votes as well as the overall scores in the primary, becoming the pro-democracy representatives in the Kowloon West and New Territories East by-election respectively.

+ Kowloon West pro-democracy primary results Party Candidate Telephone polls Generic ballots Group votes Totalscores Results % Scores Results % Scores Results % Scores Yiu Chung-yim 938 48.43 21.79 9,780 78.83 35.47 78 69.64 6.96 64.22 633 32.68 14.71 2,036 16.41 7.38 16 14.29 1.43 23.52 Ramon Yuen Hoi-man 366 18.89 8.50 591 4.76 2.14 18 16.07 1.61 12.25 Rejected 179 31 5 Total 2,115 100 45 12,438 100 45 117 100 10 100

+ New Territories East pro-democracy primary results Party Candidate Telephone polls Generic ballots Group votes Totalscores Results % Scores Results % Scores Results % Scores Gary Fan Kwok-wai 923 60.92 27.40 8,089 59.45 26.75 34 29.57 2.96 57.11 Kwok Wing-kin 287 18.94 8.53 3,058 22.47 10.11 56 48.70 4.87 23.51 305 20.13 9.06 2,460 18.08 8.14 25 21.74 2.17 19.37 Rejected 241 92 0 Total 1,756 100 45 13,699 100 45 115 100 10 100

After the primary, Frederick Fung, ranked the second in the primary, announced that he was under pressure to withdraw as a backup candidacy as agreed in the primary if Yiu Chung-yim was disqualified by the Electoral Affair Commission. "Someone from the progressive democracy bloc told me that if I ran in the poll, they would definitely send someone as well [to challenge me],” Fung said. “I hope my withdrawal will allow the hatred to dissipate." Progressive democrat legislator Eddie Chu, who earlier commented on facebook warning Fung's chance of winning as voters might refuse to vote for him and therefore the camp should not blindly abide by the agreement, denied he had been the one pressuring Fung to withdraw.

Candidates' disqualification controversy

Agnes Chow, Demosistō standing committee member, emerged as the party's and the pro-democrats' sole candidate in the Hong Kong Island by-election after Nathan Law's girlfriend Tiffany Yuen reportedly declined to run. Chow fulfilled the age limit of 21 after her 21st birthday on 3 December 2017. She officially announced her candidacy on 14 January 2018. On 27 January, her candidacy was invalidated by the returning officer as she claimed that "the candidate cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]." The European Union issued a statement warning that banning Chow from the by-election "risks diminishing Hong Kong’s international reputation as a free and open society". The pro-democracy camp supported its backup candidate Au Nok-hin running on behalf of Chow.

Yiu Chung-yim, who was rumoured that his candidacy could be foiled on the basis of National People's Congress Standing Committee interpretation of the Basic Law being applied to the entire term of the current legislature, survived the disqualification. Ramon Yuen, who became the backup candidate after the runner-up in the pro-democracy primary Frederick Fung declared he would not be the backup candidate, initially submitted his nomination amid the rumours, withdrew his candidacy hours afterward after Yiu's candidacy was validated by the returning officer on the last day of the nomination period on 29 January.

The candidacies of two other localists, Sha Tin District Councillor James Chan Kwok-keung and convenor of the Shatin Community Network Ventus Lau Wing-hong who ran in the New Territories East, were also disqualified by the returning officer Amy Chan Yuen-man on the grounds that they had advocated Hong Kong independence, even though Lau had earlier made a declaration suggesting he no longer supported the idea. Chan also claimed that he was never an independence advocate but an advocate of "communism out of Hong Kong."

Validated candidates Hong Kong Island Judy Chan Ka-pui, member of the New People's Party and Southern District Council declared her candidacy on 15 January 2018. She was supported by the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). Au Nok-hin, member of the Southern District Council, former member of the Democratic Party and former convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front was the representative for the pro-democracy camp after the initial candidate Agnes Chow of Demosistō was disqualified. A candidate for the 2016 Legislative Council election in Wholesale and Retail constituency, Au had earlier quit the Democratic Party "to pursue his own political beliefs" and ran as an independent democrat. Edward Yum Liang-hsien, former League of Social Democrats (LSD) and People Power member, also declared his candidacy in the election. Ng Dick-hay, spokesman of the pro-Beijing activist group Defend Hong Kong Campaign also ran in the election as a nonpartisan.

Kowloon West Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, Sham Shui Po District Councillor and member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) became the party's candidate after defeating Yau Tsim Mong District Council chairman Chris Ip Ngo-tung in an intra-party selection. Yiu Chung-yim, initially a member of the Legislative Council for Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape who was disqualified over the oath-taking controversy became the pro-democracy representative in the election after defeating Frederick Fung and Ramon Yuen in the pro-democracy primary in January 2018. Jonathan Tsoi Tung-chau, physiotherapist and a former member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong also submitted his candidacy.

New Territories East