The impact of the changing electoral system from the plurality voting system to the promotional representation system in the legislative council on voters and parties in Hong Kong since 1991

Abstract

Duverger law and his hypothesis have been used as the theoretical background of this project. It is hypothesized that the voters’ turnout rates, the number of parties in the Legislative Council, and the number of independent candidate will increase after the introduction of the proportional representation system into the Legislative Council direct election. Data have been collected from official websites and journals of the professional scholars. Empirical results show that after the introduction of the proportional representation system, voters have higher incentives to votes, and the number of parties which can win a seat in the Legislative Council direction election increased mainly due to the changing in the number of seats in each constituency as a result of the changing electoral system. However, it is not able to prove any relationship between the electoral system and the number of independent legislators. Results show that the changes in the electoral system would affect the voters’ choices and the parties’ campaign strategies which lead to different composition in the Legislative Council. However, the change in the electoral system is not the only explanations of the party system in Hong Kong.