The Hong Kong Island geographical constituency was one of the five geographical constituencies in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council election and was abolished under the 2021 overhaul of the Hong Kong electoral system. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, it elected six members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation. The constituency covered all the four districts on the Hong Kong Island, namely, Central and Western, Eastern, Southern and Wan Chai. In 2020, it had 707,277 registered voters.
History
The single-constituency single-vote system was replaced by the party-list proportional representation system for the first SAR Legislative Council election designed by Beijing to reward the weaker pro-Beijing candidates and dilute the electoral strength of the majority pro-democrats. Four seats were allocated to Hong Kong Island consisting the districts of Central and Western, Wan Chai, Eastern and Southern in 1998. The pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) managed to win a seat with nearly 30 per cent of the total votes as a result, while the rest were taken by the pro-democrats.
In the 2000 Legislative Council election, the DAB gained one more seat with Choy So-yuk who had a strong base in the Hokkien community in North Point when an extra seat was added to the constituency, while Cyd Ho who ran in the New Territories East replaced Christine Loh who retired. However, DAB candidate Cheng Kai-nam soon gave up his seat after the election due to corruption allegations. The vacancy was taken up by pro-democracy nonpartisan barrister Audrey Eu in the 2000 Hong Kong Island by-election.
In the 2004 Legislative Council election, Legislative Council President Rita Fan ran in Hong Kong Island when the number of the seats in the constituency increased to six seats and the Election Committee constituency was abolished. The pro-democrats launched the "1+1=4" strategy, aiming at winning two seats with each of the two tickets. However, the last minute emergency call by Martin Lee proved to a miscalculation, with his Democratic Party ticket receiving more votes than he needed, at the expense of the Eu–Ho ticket where Cyd Ho narrowly defeated by DAB's Choy So-yuk with 815 votes, less than 0.5 per cent of the vote share
DAB chairman Ma Lik's death in 2007 triggered the 2007 Hong Kong Island by-election, where the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing camps each fielded former senior government officials against each other. Former Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan won the crowded-fielded pro-democracy primary, while former Secretary for Security Regina Ip who was the face of the 2003 Basic Law Article 23 legislation was supported by the pro-Beijing parties. Receiving wide attention, Anson Chan eventually beat Regina Ip with 55–43 vote share.
The 2008 Legislative Council election saw veteran Democrats Martin Lee and Yeung Sum both stepping down from their offices, and were succeeded by veteran District Councillor Kam Nai-wai. The Democrats' dominance was eclipsed by the newly established Civic Party with Audrey Eu and Tanya Chan ticket who topped the popular votes. Former DAB chairman Jasper Tsang also switched from Kowloon West to Hong Kong Island and was later on elected the Legislative Council President, succeeding retiring Rita Fan. Regina Ip who was defeated less than a year ago also won a seat, while Cyd Ho made a comeback by regaining a seat. Over the 2012 constitutional reform package, the Civic Party launched the "Five Constituencies Referendum" and which each legislator of the five geographical constituencies resigned to trigger a de facto referendum on the reform proposal. Tanya Chan resigned from the office in January 2010 and re-elected in the May by-election with a low turnout due to the government and pro-Beijing boycott of the poll.