In 1995, every registered Hong Kong voter was eligible to vote for the local officials who would represent them on the election committee. In 1998, however, only a small subsection of the electorate was eligible to participate in the selection of the election committee several weeks ahead of the general election. The complexity of the new procedures and their similarity to the functional constituency procedures confused many of the 23 percent of eligible voters who participated in the selection of the election committee in April 1998. The New Legislative Council Under Hong Kong's executive-led political structure, the legislature and administration are not coequal branches of government. The Legislative Council is charged with enacting laws, controlling public expenditures, and monitoring the performance of the government by forwarding questions on matters of public interest.
Legislators can introduce other bills only with the consent of the chief executive.
These powers were granted to the legislature only recently. Although few predictions can be made about how the new council will work to achieve democratic reforms, observers are somewhat wary because the council will have been elected under a law that was revised by the new SAR government and passed by the unelected provisional legislature. The controversy surrounding the provisional legislature and the new election law has its origins in the standoff between Beijing and London over the pace of democratization in the former British colony before the transfer of sovereignty to China. Most analysts expect the upcoming election to be carried out in strict accordance with the law, but many in Hong Kong and abroad charge that the revised election procedures passed into law by the provisional legislature are flawed. They suggest that the procedures themselves may threaten Hong Kong's path to democracy.