The 2021 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was a general election held on 19 December 2021 for the 7th Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
Under the drastic Beijing-imposed electoral overhaul, the composition of the council was altered to reduce and limit popular representation along with ensuring a pro-Beijing majority. The total number of seats was increased from 70 to 90 seats, with the directly elected geographical constituencies (GCs) reduced from 35 to 20 seats, the trade-based indirectly elected functional constituencies (FCs) staying at 30, and the additional 40 seats being elected by the 1,500-member Election Committee. The 5 directly elected District Council (Second) FC seats were eliminated. In total, the directly elected seats were reduced from 57.1% to 22.2%. Opposition pan-democratic candidates were banned and either arrested or forced into exile. As a result of these changes the election was considered to be "patriots-only" and by numerous organizations to be neither free nor fair.
Originally scheduled on 6 September 2020, Chief Executive Carrie Lam unprecedentedly postponed the election citing the COVID-19 pandemic. That abruptly halted the momentum of the pro-democrats who campaigned for a "35+" majority, building from the historic 2019 anti-government protests and the pro-democracy landslide in the November District Council election. Subsequently, the government began to purge the opposition with the installation of the Hong Kong national security law. By mid 2021, almost all leading pro-democracy legislators and activists had either been arrested, imprisoned or forced to exile, with several major pro-democracy organisations, trade unions and media outlets disbanded by means of intimidation.
Despite efforts by the government to boost voter turnout by offering free transport and establishing polling stations at the Chinese border, the election had the lowest turnout of any Legislative Council election in history. The number of blank or invalid votes also set a record high. These issues were blamed on a lack of interest in the election amongst pro-democracy Hongkongers.
89 out of 90 elected members were the pro-Beijing establishment, with one sole moderate member in the mix represented by Third Side's Tik Chi-yuen. The traditional flagship pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) emerged as the biggest winner with 19 seats, by securing a seat in each of the ten geographical constituencies.
Background Election postponement
Originally scheduled on 6 September 2020, the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 cases in July sparked the speculation of a possible delay in the election. Tam Yiu-chung, the sole representative from Hong Kong on National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), suggested that the government should not rule out postponing the upcoming election, denying any criticism that the pro-Beijing camp was afraid of losing the election.
On 31 July, the last day of the nomination period, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the invocation of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, which gave her to the emergency powers to postpone the election. On 11 August the NPCSC unanimously passed a decision to extend the term of the incumbent 6th Legislative Council for no less than one year.
The delay was seen as a blow to the pro-democrats who aimed to achieve a "35+" majority by riding the 2019 District Council landslide on a wave of massive anti-government protests and concerns about the new national security law enacted by Beijing on Hong Kong. It was also seen as the latest in a quick series of aggressive moves by the Beijing authorities to thwart their momentum and sideline the pro-democracy movement. The pro-democrats accused Lam of using the pandemic as a pretext to stop people from voting and warned that doing so would "trigger a constitutional crisis in the city".
Crackdown on opposition
On 30 June 2020, the National People's Committee Standing Committee (NPCSC) enacted the national security law to outlaw "separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference" in Hong Kong, targeting the recent widespread protests and the pro-democracy movement. On 10 August 2020, the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force raided the offices of Next Digital, the parent company of prominent pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Next Digital founder and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was arrested and later charged with violating the national security law.
In November, the NPCSC ruled in a decision that bars Legislative Council members from supporting Hong Kong independence, refusing to recognise Beijing's sovereignty over Hong Kong, seeking help from "foreign countries or foreign forces to interfere in the affairs of the region" or committing "other acts that endanger national security". As a result, the four sitting legislators, Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung whose candidacies were invalidated by the Returning Officers in the later-postponed September election, were ousted from the legislature with immediate effect. After the disqualification, the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators announced their resignation in protest of the decision. Adding to the previous disqualifications and resignations, the total number of vacancies jumped to 27 with virtually no opposition in the Legislative Council as a result.
In January 2021, 53 pro-democracy activists, former opposition legislators, social workers and academics were arrested by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force under the national security law for holding and running in the primaries for the originally scheduled Legislative Council general election. Secretary for Security John Lee accused the opposition activists of "subverting state power" for holding the primaries and said that they were suspected of "conspiring to obtain 35 or more seats at the Legislative Council (LegCo) with a view to ... forcing the resignation of the Chief Executive, as well as bringing the HKSAR Government to a complete standstill, ... to paralyse the Government and seriously interfere in, disrupt and undermine the performance of government duties and functions".
On 27 January, CCP general secretary Xi Jinping said that Hong Kong could only maintain its long-term stability and security by ensuring "patriots governing Hong Kong" when he heard a work report delivered by Carrie Lam. On 1 March, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong in the seminar of "patriots governing Hong Kong" stated that Hong Kong must establish a "democratic electoral system with Hong Kong characteristics."
On 20 May, former legislator Eddie Chu, who was detained under the national security law, dissolved his Team Chu Hoi-dick of New Territories West. On 26 June, the Neo Democrats, affiliated with detained former legislator Gary Fan, announced its disbandment, citing the political environment after the implementation of the national security law. On 24 June, Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to shut down after the police detained the chief editor and five other executives and froze the company-linked assets on the basis of the paper having breached the city's new national security law. About a month later, the 95,000-member Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (HKPTU), the largest single trades union in the city, announced on 10 August 2021 that it would disband after more than a week-long attacks from the Chinese state media describing the union as a "poisonous tumour" that must be "eradicated". On 15 August, the protest coalition Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), which had organised some of the biggest pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong's history, decided to disband, citing the oppression its member groups were facing and also the "unprecedented challenges" the civil society was having. It was followed by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (HKASPDMC) in September after its HK$2.2 million assets was frozen and the group was charged with inciting subversion and being "an agent of foreign forces "under the national security law. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), Hong Kong's largest independent trade union, was also disbanded in October after pro-Beijing media suggested the union was a "foreign agent" or "colluding with foreign forces" due to its affiliation with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Civic Passion, Community Sha Tin, Community March, Cheung Sha Wan Community Establishment Power, Tsz Wan Shan Constructive Power, and the Tuen Mun Community Network were also forced to disband among other political groups.
In May 2021, the Hong Kong government passed the Public Offices (Candidacy and Taking Up Offices) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2021, which extended the oath of allegiance requirements to District Councillors among other public offices. Amid the reports suggesting the councillors would be asked to return their accrued salaries if their oaths were deemed invalid, 278 pro-democrat councillors resigned before they were requested to take the oath. As a result, 49 pro-democrat councillors' oaths were ruled invalid and the councillors were ousted, leaving more than 70 per cent of the seats in the 18 District Councils vacant and effectively negating the pro-democracy victory in the 2019 election.
Electoral overhaul
On 11 March 2021, the National People's Congress (NPC) passed a decision to rewrite the election rules in Hong Kong to impose a more restrictive electoral system, claiming it was to ensure a system of "patriots governing Hong Kong". The new electoral system was further amended by a 30 March decision by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), which amended both the Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, specifying the electoral methods for the Chief Executive (CE) and the Legislative Council respectively.
Under the new system, the number of Legislative Council seats would be increased to 90 from 70, but the number of directly elected geographical constituency seats would be lowered to 20 from 35, while the trade-based indirectly elected functional constituency seats would remain at 30, and the Beijing-controlled 1,500-seat Election Committee would elect 40 seats to the Legislative Council. The five District Council (Second) "super seats" introduced in the 2010 electoral reform package and elected by all registered voters would be eliminated.
For the functional constituencies, the District Council (First), which would have been held by the pro-democrats due to the 2019 District Council landslide, were eliminated, while another pro-democracy stronghold Health Services was merged with the Medical and Information Technology. Three new constituencies were created, namely the Commercial (Third), the Technology and Innovation, and the HKSAR deputies to the National People's Congress, HKSAR members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and representatives of relevant national organisations.
The remaining 20 directly elected seats were divided into 10 geographical constituencies, in which two members will be elected per constituency, making it a single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system. Each candidate must receive nominations of at least two but no more than four members from each sector of the Election Committee. A Candidate Eligibility Review Committee was set up to review and confirm the eligibility of candidates with the consultation of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security and the review of the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force. The decision of the Review Committee shall not be challenged legally.