If Hongkongers’ support for Legco is waning, it isn’t just lawmakers’ fault
Por Alice Wu — South China Morning Post – News feed
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Opinion Alice Wu If Hongkongers’ support for Legco is waning, it isn’t just lawmakers’ fault
Despite Legco having become more efficient, public perception of the legislature isn’t overwhelmingly positive. The administration’s approach hasn’t helped
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Alice Wu Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA. Published: 4:30pm, 11 Oct 2026 Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, Hong Kong’s first post-handover Legislative Council president, recently dropped a political bomb . She revealed that one of her friends had been telling her that a legislature with 90 seats costs a lot more than one with 60 and that “I kind of agree with that”.
The basic maths behind the statement cannot be refuted: 60 is two-thirds of 90. Even though Fan didn’t bring up the topic herself – she was asked the question by the host during a radio show – it was shocking that a political veteran of her calibre would suggest considering the reduction of Legco seats to cut costs.
Funding is not the main issue at play here. Reducing the discussion to dollars and cents does not properly address the real problem, which is public perception.
First, a quick breakdown of how we arrived at the current number of Legco seats. The legislature expanded from 60 to 70 seats for the 2012-16 term. This was part of the 2010 constitutional and electoral reform package, which also increased the number of Election Committee members from 800 to 1,200.
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