Find out whether you're eligible to vote in the 2018 Hong Kong Legco by-election
If you did not register by May 2, or if your birthday fell after July 25 this year, then you won’t be able to vote in the by-elections coming up in 2018
Youngspiration's Yau Wai-ching (centre) and Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang (right) have been removed from their Legco seats, which now require filling. Photo: Sam Tsang/SCMPIf you turned 18 after July 25, or you have not already registered to become an elector, you will not be able to vote in next year’s by-election.
According to the Electoral Affairs Commission, you can register as an elector in a geographical constituency if you reach 18 years of age on or before July 25 on a non district council election year.
If you turn 18 after this, or if you did not register as an elector by May 2 earlier this year, you will not be able to vote next year. This is the case even if you turn 18 by March 11 in 2018, the day of the by-election.
The Electoral Affairs Commission announced the date for the upcoming by-election last Thursday. Some 2.1 million voters, who have already registered, will be able to vote in the by-election, which is being held to fill four empty seats in Legislative Council.
These seats are vacant, and have been since a court ruling removed Demosisto’s Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Youngspirations’s Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung Chung-hang, and independent pan-democratic politician Edward Yiu Chung-yim from office. They lost their seats after a court ruling found they had failed to take their oaths properly last year.
The by-elections will be held in the geographical constituencies of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East Constituency, and in the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency.
There will be more by-elections further down the line for seats vacated by two other opposition lawmakers, Lau Siu-lai of Kowloon West and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung of New Territories East.