2025 Hong Kong legislative election

The 2025 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was a general election held on 7 December 2025 to elect all 90 members of the 8th Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Following the 2021 Hong Kong electoral changes, 90 seats were up for election, including 40 seats elected by the 1,500-member Election Committee, 30 trade-based indirectly elected functional constituency seats, and 20 seats directly elected through geographical constituencies. The election, in which only pro-government "patriots" may run and only 20 seats are popularly elected, is considered by various countries and groups to be neither free nor fair. The past legislative session, the 7th Legislative Council, was criticised for its lack of meaningful discourse, with many bills being approved without a quorum. The introduction of smart ballot boxes also prompted controversy, while the future of democrats and moderates was called into question due to the effective dissolution of the pro-democracy camp. Ultimately, there were only two "non-core pro-establishment candidates" from the PoD Research Institute, both of whom did not declare their affiliation and came last. Following multiple reports that indicated the central Chinese government established an age limit on lawmakers, all 12 of them aged over 70, including council president Andrew Leung and the leaders of five parties – Lo Wai-kwok of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA), Regina Ip of the New People's Party (NPP), Tommy Cheung of the Liberal Party, Michael Tien of Roundtable, and Tik Chi-yuen of Third Side – chose not to seek another term for various reasons, contributing to a retirement wave and an abundance of newcomer candidates. Third Side and New Prospect for Hong Kong did not field any candidates after their incumbents retired. Election-related activities were suspended due to the Wang Fuk Court fire, but the election went ahead as scheduled despite calls for postponement. Only government-organised election forums were held, which were criticised for lacking debate. The government ran a massive turnout campaign, set up dedicated polling stations, and extended voting hours to raise the historically low turnout from the last election. Many people were arrested for damaging election posters and inciting others not to vote or cast invalid votes. The election resulted in a 31.9% voter turnout—a slight increase from the 2021 election but still lower than the 52.3% turnout in 2016. The total votes cast in the geographical constituencies also decreased from 2021 by 33,000, and registration decreased by 7.64%.