An Analysis of the Election Results

Abstract

None of the political parties manage to dominate the LegCo in the elections. The Democratic Party (DP) succeeded in capturing thirteen LegCo seats-nine from the direct election and four from functional constituencies. However, compared to its electoral gains in the 1995 LegCo election, the DP had its influence curbed by the proportional representation (PR) system (Table 1). The PR system was clearly beneficial to the pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), which gained five directly elected seats—three more than what it gained in the 1995 LegCo election. The leaders of the DAB were directly elected to the legislature, including party chair Tsang Yok Sing, secretary-general Gary Cheng Kai Nam, Chan Yuen Han, and Tarn Yiu Chung (Table 2). Overall, the DAB gained nine seats in LegCo and became the third largest political party following the DP and the Liberal Party (LP). Although the LP succeeded in capturing nine functional constituency seats, none of its members who participated in geographical constituency elections was elected. Its party chair, Allen Lee Peng Fei, was defeated in the geographical constituency of the New Territories East. While the LP remained a party influential in functional constituency elections (Table 3), it would be able to form a loose coalition with the DAB in order to check the influence of the DP in LegCo.