Academic finds only a minority of legislators have voted against the government
Research on voting patterns in the Legislative Council has found that more than half of the lawmakers voted against the government only once, or not at all, on contentious amendments to bills over the past four years.
The academic responsible for the study said the findings showed the government enjoyed a monopoly over Legco through its functional constituency supporters.
Of the 17 who did not vote against the government on any of these 48 occasions, 10 came from functional constituencies, four from the Election Committee and three from geographical constituencies.
The 17 who voted against the government only once comprised 12 from the functional constituencies, four from the geographical constituencies and one from the Election Committee.
Christopher Chaney, a visiting researcher at the University of Hong Kong, focused on amendments that went to a formal vote, and covered the second Legco term from 2000 until March 17. These, he said, provided a good indicator of a legislator's preferences.