2000 Hong Kong legislative election
The 2000 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 10 September 2000 for members of the 2nd Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The election returned 24 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 6 seats from the Election Committee constituency and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 9 uncontested. The election saw the decline in turnout rate from 53.29 percent in 1998 to 43.57 percent. The Democratic Party was able to maintain the largest party status in the legislature by retaining 12 seats, despite its vote share fell  sharply by eight percent, if including Lau Chin-shek from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) running in the same ticket with Democrat James To in Kowloon West, from 42 percent in 1998 to 34 percent in 2000. In contrast, the pro-Beijing rival Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) raised its vote share over two years by five percent, to 29.6 percent if including Tang Siu-tong from the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA). As a result, the DAB won 11 seats, a sharp increase of three seats from the previous election, making it  the second largest political party in the legislature, despite an alleged corruption scandal involving its vice-chairman Cheng Kai-nam at the peak of the campaign. Cheng did not take his office and a by-election in December was won by a pro-democracy independent Audrey Eu. The pro-democracy camp won 21 seats in total, of which 16 of those returned from the directly elected geographical constituencies, one seat more than the previous election which secured the one-thirds vote to veto any government's proposal of any constitutional amendment. Change in composition. According to the Annex II of  the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the number of the Election Committee constituency indirectly elected by the 800-member Election Committee would reduce from 10 seats to 6 seats, while the directly elected geographical constituency seats would increase from 20 to 24. As a result, each geographical constituency except the New Territories East was added one extra seat. After the two municipal councils, the Urban Council and Regional Council, were abolished in 1999, the two corresponding functional constituencies were also abolished and replaced by the Information Technology and Catering seats. Parties and candidates. A total of 155 candidates representing ten  political parties and candidates who were independents or not non-affiliated ran for the total number of 60 seats. 88 of whom ran in the 24 directly elected geographical constituencies, 57 for the 30 indirectly elected functional constituencies and 10 were nominated for the 6 Election Committee seats. Retiring incumbents. Ambrose Cheung, representing the Provisional Urban Council resigned from the Legislative Council as protest to the government's decision on abolishing the two municipal councils, Urban Council and Regional Council and their corresponding Legislative Council constituencies in 2000. No by-election was held due to the short period before the  general election. General result. Before election: Change in composition: !|Parties and allegiances ! |Geographical constituencies ! |Functional constituencies ! |ECCseats ! |Totalseats ! |± ! |Votes ! |% ! |±pp ! |Seats ! |Votes ! |% ! |±pp ! |Seats Incumbents defeated. Four incumbents lost re-election. Results breakdown. Geographical constituencies (24 seats). Voting System: Closed party-list proportional representation with the largest remainder method and Hare Quota. Functional Constituencies (30 seats). Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance and Transport, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the first-past-the-post voting  system.