Hong Kong’s electoral regulator on Friday revealed its plan to incorporate the Hong Kong side of the Hetao cooperation zone, a cross-border innovation platform located on the Lok Ma Chau Loop, into the city’s electoral constituency map.
At a news conference on Friday, the Electoral Affairs Commission said it plans to include the Hong Kong side of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone to the New Territories North Geographical Constituency, for the Legislative Council General Election scheduled for Dec 7.
New Territories North is one of 10 geographical constituencies the city created before the LegCo election in 2021. The division covers the entire Northern district and the north part of the Yuen Long district, including the Lok Ma Chau Loop area.
The Lok Ma Chau Loop was one of the small sites created after the Shenzhen River straightening and improvement project, carried out by Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities in the 1980s and 1990s. The administrative rights of these border sites had been undecided for a long time.
In 2017, the governments of Shenzhen and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region signed a memorandum of understanding in which both sides confirmed that the loop and three other cross-boundary sites, with a total area of around 91 hectares, had been included in the administrative division of Hong Kong, while five sites, with a total area of about 12 hectares, had been included in the administrative division of Shenzhen.
Both cities agreed to develop the loop into the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park, which is also the Hong Kong side of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone — a national level innovation platform.
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Electoral Affairs Commission Chairman David Lok Kai-hong said that although the population of the Hetao zone’s Hong Kong side was estimated to currently be zero, considering its substantial development and the fact and its first three buildings will be functional soon, the commission believed that now is the time to include it in the adjacent New Territories North Constituency.
Despite the addition of the Hetao zone, the commission said there is no need to adjust the current boundaries of the other nine geographic constituencies.
Lok said that the Legislative Council Ordinance stipulates that two lawmakers will be elected from each of the 10 geographic constituencies. Each seat should ideally represent a comparable population, with a deviation of less than 15 percent. Based on Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million, the standard populations base for each elected seat should be 375,000.
Currently, the population of all 10 geographical constituencies are within the 15 percent deviation, Lok said.
However, Lok said, the New Territories North West and the Hong Kong Island East constituencies are relatively close to the 15 percent deviation baseline, and there might be some adjustments in the next election after the one in December.
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Lok added that this year the commission will also consider establishing polling stations near the border, as it did in the previous LegCo poll, to facilitate residents.
A public consultation for the committee’s provisional recommendations on the boundaries and names of geographical constituencies for the LegCo election began on Friday and will run through May 31.
After the consultation, the committee will consolidate the collected suggestions for the chief executive’s consideration.
The 2025 Voter Registration Campaign was launched on April 25. Lok calls for eligible residents to submit their voter registration application forms by June 2, adding that voting is the right and responsibility of everyone.
