Give all Hong Kong’s finance workers the vote in Legco functional constituencies, pan-democrats urge
Concern groups call for overhaul of voter registration system to break dominance of corporate block votes
The 150,000 Hong Kong residents working in the city’s financial industries should be allowed to elect lawmakers to represent them in the Legislative Council, concern groups and pan-democratic lawmakers have said.
They are calling for an overhaul of the voter registration system for Legco’s insurance, banking and financial services functional constituencies, which are dominated by hundreds of corporate block votes.
Currently, 35 representatives of geographical constituencies and five “super seat” lawmakers in the 70-member legislature were picked by more than three million voters, but the remaining 30 lawmakers – representing 28 functional constituencies which operate on behalf of various trade sectors in the city – were elected by just 230,000 voters.
Furthermore, 10 of those 28 trade-based constituencies, such as those for banking, consist of corporate voters only, while another 10 consist solely of individual voters, with the remaining eight made up of both.
As of last year, more than 220,000 people were employed in the city’s finance and insurance industries, but there were only 551 voters in the financial services sector, 121 in banking and 128 in the insurance industry.