Introduction

This database contains voting results of the Council, the House Committee and the Finance Committeeand its subcomittees starting from the fifth term of LegCo.

For more details of the database, see https://www.legco.gov.hk/odata/english/vrdb.html.

Key Identifiers

Here are the key identifies that is useful for locating the necessary data from the Attendance Database:

  • VoteTime is the date and time when a vote is conducted. The lack of a designated unique identifier means the VoteTime is the only unique identifier of each individual vote.

  • TermID is the numerical ID of a LegCo term. Note that the nominal number of a TermID is less than that of the term number by 1, i.e. the TermID of the fifth term is 4.

This database has an ID which has little value since there is only one data endpoint and it is not interchangeable with other databases. To locate the bill in other databases, it is advisable to use the VoteDate as the filter parameter (e.g. Hansard database) or to find the CommitteeID of the relevant bill committee using the complimentary function search_committee() (e.g. Meeting Schedule Database).

Total Count

The function in this database has an option to return only the total count of the records matching the specified parameters instead of returning the data frame containing the result. To activate this option, specify count = TRUE:

# Fetch the total number of members absent from the division on the Motion Concerning
# the Amendment to the Method for the Selection of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR
voting_record(committee = "Council Meeting",
              from = "2015-06-18", to = "2015-06-18",
              vote = "absent", count = TRUE)
## [1] "33"

This database is accessible with the following function:

voting_record()

voting_record() fetches the voting record of one or more Council, the House Committee and the Finance Committee and its subcomittees meeting(s), or the attendance record of one or more LegCo member(s) in these meetings. Note that this function takes none of CommitteeID, SpeakerID or MemberID as a filtering parameter. Instead, only the full English committee name and the full Chinese name of LegCo members can be used.

# Fetch how members voted the motion on "Abolishing the MPF Offsetting Mechanism" on November 11, 2016
v <- voting_record(committee = "Council Meeting",
                   from = "2016-11-16 13:51:53",
                   to = "2016-11-16 13:51:53")
head(v)
##       ID           StartDate       Committee TermID VoteNumber
## 1 526982 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
## 2 526983 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
## 3 526984 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
## 4 526985 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
## 5 526986 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
## 6 526987 2016-11-16 00:00:00 Council Meeting      5          7
##              VoteDate            VoteTime                         MotionCh
## 1 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
## 2 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
## 3 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
## 4 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
## 5 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
## 6 2016-11-16 00:00:00 2016-11-16 13:51:53 「取消強制性公積金對沖機制」議案
##                                                                   MotionEn
## 1 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
## 2 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
## 3 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
## 4 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
## 5 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
## 6 MOTION ON “ABOLISHING THE MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND OFFSETTING MECHANISM”
##   MoverCh       MoverEn MoverType VoteSeparateMechanism GcPresentCount
## 1  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
## 2  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
## 3  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
## 4  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
## 5  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
## 6  黃國健 WONG Kwok-kin    Member                   Yes             31
##   GcVoteCount GcYesCount GcNoCount GcAbstainCount GcResult FcPresentCount
## 1          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
## 2          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
## 3          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
## 4          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
## 5          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
## 6          31         28         3              0   Passed             28
##   FcVoteCount FcYesCount FcNoCount FcAbstainCount FcResult OverallPresentCount
## 1          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
## 2          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
## 3          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
## 4          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
## 5          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
## 6          27         16         8              3   Passed                  NA
##   OverallVoteCount OverallYesCount OverallNoCount OverallAbstainCount
## 1               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 2               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 3               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 4               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 5               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 6               NA              NA             NA                  NA
##   OverallResult NameCh          NameEn Constituency    Vote DisplayOrder
## 1        Passed 梁君彥    Andrew LEUNG   Functional Present            1
## 2        Passed 涂謹申        James TO   Functional     Yes            2
## 3        Passed 梁耀忠 LEUNG Yiu-chung   Functional     Yes            3
## 4        Passed 石禮謙    Abraham SHEK   Functional  Absent            4
## 5        Passed 張宇人    Tommy CHEUNG   Functional      No            5
## 6        Passed 李國麟 Prof Joseph LEE   Functional     Yes            6
# Fetch the votes that Hon Abraham Shek were abstained from
v <- voting_record(name_en = "Abraham SHEK", vote = "abstain")
head(v)
##      ID           StartDate       Committee TermID VoteNumber
## 1 47797 2012-11-07 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4          2
## 2 48427 2012-11-07 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4         11
## 3 48636 2012-11-14 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4          2
## 4 48846 2012-11-14 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4          5
## 5 51281 2012-12-05 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4         10
## 6 53285 2013-01-23 00:00:00 Council Meeting      4          3
##              VoteDate            VoteTime
## 1 2012-11-07 00:00:00 2012-11-07 17:42:53
## 2 2012-11-07 00:00:00 2012-11-07 23:58:46
## 3 2012-11-14 00:00:00 2012-11-14 23:14:44
## 4 2012-11-14 00:00:00 2012-11-14 23:25:57
## 5 2012-12-06 00:00:00 2012-12-06 13:48:36
## 6 2013-01-23 00:00:00 2013-01-23 19:43:54
##                                                                                           MotionCh
## 1                                             鍾國斌議員對何秀蘭議員的「同志平權」議案作出的修正案
## 2                       田北俊議員對王國興議員的「完善房屋政策,解決市民住屋需要」議案作出的修正案
## 3                                             馮檢基議員對陳婉嫻議員的「紓解貧窮」議案作出的修正案
## 4                   譚耀宗議員對陳婉嫻議員就「紓解貧窮」所提,經馮檢基議員修正的議案,作出的修正案
## 5 單仲偕議員對張華峰議員就「支持證券業發展」所提,經王國興議員/湯家驊議員修正的議案,作出的修正案
## 6                                             梁繼昌議員對葛珮帆議員的「幫助中產」議案作出的修正案
##                                                                                                                                                                         MotionEn
## 1                                                           AMENDMENT BY HON CHUNG KWOK-PAN TO HON CYD HO'S MOTION ON "EQUAL RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS"
## 2                                                    AMENDMENT BY HON JAMES TIEN TO HON WONG KWOK-HING'S MOTION ON "PERFECTING HOUSING POLICY AND RESOLVING PUBLIC HOUSING NEED"
## 3                                                                                         AMENDMENT BY HON FREDERICK FUNG TO HON CHAN YUEN-HAN'S MOTION ON "ALLEVIATING POVERTY"
## 4                                                         AMENDMENT BY HON TAM YIU-CHUNG TO HON CHAN YUEN-HAN'S MOTION ON "ALLEVIATING POVERTY" AS AMENDED BY HON FREDERICK FUNG
## 5 AMENDMENT BY HON SIN CHUNG-KAI TO HON CHRISTOPHER CHEUNG'S MOTION ON "SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECURITIES INDUSTRY" AS AMENDED BY HON WONG KWOK-HING / HON RONNY TONG
## 6                                                                               AMENDMENT BY HON KENNETH LEUNG TO DR HON ELIZABETH QUAT'S MOTION ON "ASSISTING THE MIDDLE CLASS"
##   MoverCh        MoverEn MoverType VoteSeparateMechanism GcPresentCount
## 1  鍾國斌 CHUNG Kwok-pan    Member                   Yes             34
## 2  田北俊     James TIEN    Member                   Yes             32
## 3  馮檢基 Frederick FUNG    Member                   Yes             34
## 4  譚耀宗  TAM Yiu-chung    Member                   Yes             34
## 5  單仲偕  SIN Chung-kai    Member                   Yes             16
## 6  梁繼昌  Kenneth LEUNG    Member                   Yes             30
##   GcVoteCount GcYesCount GcNoCount GcAbstainCount  GcResult FcPresentCount
## 1          33          8        20              5 Negatived             35
## 2          31         21         4              6    Passed             30
## 3          33         29         4              0    Passed             33
## 4          33         29         3              1    Passed             34
## 5          15         15         0              0    Passed             25
## 6          29         14         0             15 Negatived             28
##   FcVoteCount FcYesCount FcNoCount FcAbstainCount  FcResult OverallPresentCount
## 1          35         16         8             11 Negatived                  NA
## 2          30         20         2              8    Passed                  NA
## 3          33         17         7              9    Passed                  NA
## 4          34         18         5             11    Passed                  NA
## 5          25         13         6              6    Passed                  NA
## 6          28         15         0             13    Passed                  NA
##   OverallVoteCount OverallYesCount OverallNoCount OverallAbstainCount
## 1               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 2               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 3               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 4               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 5               NA              NA             NA                  NA
## 6               NA              NA             NA                  NA
##   OverallResult NameCh       NameEn Constituency    Vote DisplayOrder
## 1     Negatived 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10
## 2        Passed 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10
## 3        Passed 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10
## 4        Passed 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10
## 5        Passed 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10
## 6     Negatived 石禮謙 Abraham SHEK   Functional Abstain           10