Global Information1896 Hong Kong Sanitary Board plebiscite information
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Whether the Sanitary Board should consist of a majority of officials or of unofficials? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by Colony | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Unofficial majority Official majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||
A plebiscite on whether the Sanitary Board should have an official or unofficial majority was held in Hong Kong in June 1896. It was the only plebiscite conducted by the Hong Kong Government on record. The other de facto referendum launched by the pro-democracy camp through the by-election in 2010 was not officially recognised.
The result of the plebiscite was overwhelmingly for unofficial majority, however no constitutional changes were made for Sanitary Board, though the constitutions of the Executive and Legislative Council were changed as unofficial members were added as a result.
The 1896 plebiscite could be seen as part of the first major debate on the constitutional reform in the crown colony during the 1890s. It was much earlier than the Governor Mark Aitchison Young's Young Plan in the 1940s and 1950s and the rise of the modern pro-democracy camp in the 1980s.