Hong Kong – The results of Hong Kong’s 2025 Legislative Council election were announced in the early hours of Monday, 8 December, bringing the city’s most tightly controlled vote in modern history to a close. All 90 seats in the eighth-term legislature are now filled: 40 chosen by the powerful 1,500-member Election Committee, 30 returned by functional constituencies representing professional and business sectors, and just 20 elected directly by the public in geographical constituencies.
In the Election Committee Constituency, all 24 incumbent lawmakers were comfortably re-elected, joined by 16 newcomers. The highest individual vote-getters were incumbents Perry Yiu with 1,397 votes and Yan Chan with 1,386. The new legislature will be sworn in on 1 January 2026 for a four-year term.
Overall voter turnout was 31.9 percent of the city’s approximately 4.13 million registered electors – a modest 1.7 percentage point improvement over the historic low of 30.2 percent recorded in the 2021 election, but still representing 33,000 fewer ballots cast than four years ago. Geographical constituencies recorded 1,317,682 valid votes, while functional constituencies saw 76,942 ballots (40.09 percent turnout). Blank and spoiled votes in direct elections reached a post-handover record of 3.12 percent, or 41,147 ballots – significantly higher than the 2.02 percent in 2021 and widely interpreted as a silent protest against the lack of genuine choice.
The poll took place under the shadow of profound collective grief. Just twelve days earlier, on 26 November, a catastrophic fire ripped through Wang Fuk Court, a public housing estate in Tai Po, killing at least 159 residents – mostly elderly and living in subdivided flats – and injuring hundreds more in the deadliest blaze in Hong Kong’s history. Campaigning was suspended for three days of official mourning, and calls from some quarters to postpone the election were rejected by the government, which insisted the vote must proceed to preserve constitutional order and allow the new legislature to address recovery efforts swiftly.
Chief Executive John Lee cast his ballot wearing a black armband and later described the election as “successful,” saying it demonstrated the government’s firm adherence to the constitutional framework and the rule of law. He congratulated all newly elected members and pledged close cooperation on urgent issues, particularly reconstruction and fire-safety reforms in the wake of the Tai Po tragedy.
This was only the second Legislative Council election conducted under Beijing’s sweeping 2021 electoral overhaul, which expanded the chamber from 70 to 90 seats while drastically reducing the proportion of directly elected lawmakers from half to just over one-fifth. Every candidate was pre-vetted for political loyalty by a Candidate Eligibility Review Committee, ensuring that only “patriots” deemed sufficiently loyal to Beijing and the Hong Kong SAR could stand. The overhaul effectively eliminated organised pro-democracy representation; longstanding opposition parties such as the Civic Party have dissolved, and the Democratic Party is in the process of winding down.
Despite the absence of opposition, the election produced notable turnover: 40 newcomers will take seats in the new council. Among the fresh faces are 28-year-old Olympic fencing gold medallist Vivian Kong, now the youngest lawmaker, who won convincingly in Hong Kong Island East with over 58,000 votes; district councillor Christine Fong, who finally secured a geographical seat in New Territories South East on her sixth attempt; and several younger pro-establishment figures from the DAB, FTU and Business and Professionals Alliance. Four sitting lawmakers were defeated, mainly in functional constituencies where competition remained limited but real.
Pro-Beijing heavyweights retained their strongholds. DAB chairwoman Starry Lee easily held Kowloon Central, FTU’s Joephy Chan kept New Territories South West, and the business community maintained dominance in commercial and financial sectors. For the first time since 1998, the liberal-leaning professional camp did not field a candidate in the Transport functional constituency, marking another shift toward a more uniformly pro-establishment chamber.
The government had mounted an unprecedented HK$1.28 billion publicity drive – complete with citywide banners, television adverts, thank-you cards for voters, and special civil-service polling stations – yet participation remained among the lowest for any Legislative Council election since the 1997 handover. Analysts attributed the stubbornly low turnout to a combination of political disillusionment, lingering anger over the perceived mishandling of public-housing safety, and a widespread belief that the outcome was predetermined.
As the new legislature prepares to convene, it faces immediate pressure to deliver tangible improvements in housing safety, elderly care, and urban renewal in the aftermath of the Wang Fuk Court disaster. A judge-led independent commission of inquiry into the fire has been promised, and lawmakers are expected to fast-track legislation on fire codes, building inspections, and penalties for non-compliant subdivided flats.
For many residents still wearing black ribbons and laying flowers at makeshift memorials in Tai Po, the election felt distant from their daily struggles. “We voted because we want someone to make sure this never happens again,” said one Tai Po resident waiting in line on Sunday. “But we also know the real decisions are made long before polling day.”
With no dissenting voices inside the chamber and public participation at historic lows, Hong Kong’s latest legislative intake begins its term symbolising both the consolidation of Beijing’s political control and the quiet, persistent undercurrent of civic disengagement that has characterised the city since the sweeping changes of 2020–2021.
