The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:

     The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) today (May 2) released for public consultation its provisional recommendations on the boundaries and names of geographical constituencies (GCs) for the 2025 Legislative Council (LegCo) General Election. The public consultation period will last for 30 days until May 31.

     The EAC Chairman, Mr Justice David Lok, said at a press conference today, "The 2025 LegCo General Election will be held on December 7. As stipulated in the Legislative Council Ordinance (Cap. 542), there are 10 GCs in Hong Kong with the number of members to be returned for each GC be two, totalling 20 members."

     "Following the enactment of the Electoral Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2025 upon gazettal, the statutory connection between the delineation of GCs and District Council GCs under section 20 of the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance (Cap. 541), which is related to the criteria for the EAC to make recommendations, has been removed," he said.

     The provisional recommendations were drawn up by the EAC in accordance with the statutory provisions of the Legislative Council Ordinance and the amended Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance, as well as the EAC's working principles.

     Mr Justice Lok added, "Using the boundaries of the existing 10 GCs as the basis and taking into account the projected population in the respective GCs, the EAC endeavoured to adopt the existing GC boundaries as far as possible."

     According to the population projection by the Planning Department (PlanD), the total population of Hong Kong as at mid-2025 is 7 559 800. The average population to each seat of GC is therefore 377 990 (known as the "population quota").

     The Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance provides that the population in each GC shall not fall short of 85 per cent or exceed 115 per cent of "the resulting number" of the GC concerned. "The resulting number" is obtained by multiplying the "population quota" with the number of seats in that GC.

     Mr Justice Lok said, "Based on the latest population projection as at mid-2025 by the PlanD, the population for the existing LegCo GCs are all within the statutory permissible range (see Appendix). Therefore, in principle, it is not necessary for the EAC to adjust the existing boundaries of GCs. Indeed, the EAC all along would not on its own initiative adjust the boundaries for those GCs with the projected population fallen within the statutory permissible range. According to the EAC's past experiences in delineation exercises, members of the public have also prevalently advocated to maintain the GC boundaries status quo as far as possible.

     "However, noting that there are ongoing development and construction works in the Loop, the EAC proposed to include the Loop in the only contiguous GC, i.e. New Territories North (LC7) in this delineation exercise to tie in with the Loop's development, while the boundaries of the remaining nine GCs would remain status quo."

     Members of the public are welcome to make written representations on the provisional recommendations to the EAC Secretariat by email (eacenq@eac.hk), post (8/F, Treasury Building, 3 Tonkin Street West, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon) or fax (2511 1682) by May 31. For written representations submitted by post, the postmark date will be taken as the submission date. Late submissions will not be considered.

     The EAC will hold a public forum from 7pm to 9pm on May 19 (Monday) at Multi-purpose Hall, 3/F, City Gallery, 3 Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong. Members of the public are welcome to attend to express views.

     The provisional recommendations can be viewed from the EAC website (www.eac.hk), or inspected at the Home Affairs Enquiry Centres of all district offices, the Registration and Electoral Office (REO), Philatelic Offices of Hongkong Post, management offices of public housing estates, and major and district public libraries.

     For enquiries, please call the REO hotline at 2891 1001.

Ends/Friday, May 2, 2025
Issued at HKT 18:35

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