Functional constituencies to stay for 2016 Legco poll, government says

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying faced criticism for putting out an "extremely conservative" report on political reform in which he said there was no need to abolish the trade-based functional constituencies in the Legislative Council or its so-called split-voting system.

In his report to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Leung said there was a general consensus in Hong Kong that arrangements for universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 should be concluded first.

"In light of [this], I take the view that … Annex II to the Basic Law concerning the method for forming the [Legislative Council] in 2016 need not be amended," Leung wrote.

Annex II to the Basic Law - the city's quasi-constitution - specifies the method for forming Legco and its procedures for voting on bills and motions.

The split voting system is designed to make it more difficult for bills or motions put forward by legislators to pass. It requires a majority vote from each of the two groups of legislators - those returned by functional constituencies and those returned by direct elections.

In a 2004 ruling, the NPC Standing Committee said functional constituencies should stay and make up half the seats in Legco and that the split voting system should remain intact. Functional constituencies are mainly profession- or trade-based.