Elections in Hong Kong take place when certain political offices in the government need to be filled. Hong Kong has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in the Legislative Council. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is nonpartisan.

Every four years, ninety representatives are chosen to sit on the unicameral Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). Twenty seats representing the geographical constituencies are returned by popular vote, thirty seats representing the functional constituencies are elected through smaller closed elections within business sectors, and the remaining forty seats representing the Election Committee constituency are chosen by members of the Election Committee. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is returned by the 1,500-member Election Committee on five-year intervals. Local elections are held on four-year intervals to return members of District Councils.

Following the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and the landslide victory of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp in the 2019 Hong Kong local elections, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China passed the Hong Kong national security law and changes to Annex I and Annex II of the Hong Kong Basic Law. Candidates are subject to an official eligibility review mechanism, curtailing the influence of the public's vote on the outcome of elections.

Elections for unofficial members of the Urban Council were held beginning 1888. Suffrage was restricted to residents on the special and common jury lists between 1888 and 1973. In 1973, the electoral franchise for the Urban Council was widened to residents above 21 years of age who have lived in Hong Kong for at least three years that qualified in at least one of 23 specified categories, which included educational qualifications (School Certificate Examination or equivalent), being a juror, salaried taxpayer, or a member of certain professional organisations as listed in Schedule 1 of the Urban Council Ordinance (Cap. 101, Laws of Hong Kong). Half of the members of the Urban Council were elected, but by a minority of the population. It was estimated that in 1970 there were 250,000 eligible voters and in 1981 the number had increased to 400,000 – 500,000. Prominent elected Urban Councillors included Elsie Tu and Brook Bernacchi of the Reform Club.

The Green Paper: A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong was published on 6 June 1980 for public consultations on reforming local administration in Hong Kong. The Green Paper recommended that elections by popular vote be introduced to return some members of the newly established District Boards and unofficial members of the Urban Council. The White Paper: District Administration in Hong Kong of January 1981 further cemented the government's will to introduce elections by popular vote. Proposals in the White Paper were implemented between 1982 and 1983, during which elections to the District Boards and Urban Council were held.

Months before the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed which the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China governments agreed on handing over Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the Green Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong was published in July 1984. The Green Paper cemented first large-scale constitutional reform in developing a representative government during the British rule. The Green Paper suggested the introduction of indirect election in two stages in 1985 and 1988 to the unofficial members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) by an electoral college consisting of Members of the Urban Council of Hong Kong, the new Regional Council to be established in 1986, and District Boards and functional groups or functional constituencies. The first Legislative Council elections, electing 24 unofficial members of LegCo, was held in September 1985.

Consultations on electoral reform followed the 1985 electoral reform. In the White Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong of 1984, the idea of direct election was suggested to be reviewed in the development of representative government in 1987.

In May 1987, the government published the 1987 Green Paper: Review of Developments in Representative Government to consider the next stage of development of representative government. Despite strong public opinion in the consultations supporting the introduction of direct elections, the Government concluded that no clear consensus on the timing or the extent of the introduction of direct elections emerged. The subsequent White Paper: the Development of Representative Government: The Way Forward delayed the first direct elections to the Legislative Council from 1988 to the 1991 elections. A total of 18 members were returned from geographical constituencies by popular vote, out of a total of 60 LegCo members.