They were once considered progressives and leftists; but as the consensus of Hong Kong politics moved, they appear to be ideologically conservative compared to the mainstream of Hong Kong. During the administration of Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, the indigenous pro-communist parties suffered from his electoral reforms in 1995. After the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, the new HKSAR government changed the electoral system to Party-list proportional representation, in order to make the pro-communist parties to have safe seats in the geographical constituency, and prevent the Pan-democracy camp to have a Supermajority in the geographical constituency.