The 2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election was held on 25 March 2012 to select the Chief Executive of Hong Kong (CE), the highest office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), by a 1,193-member Election Committee (EC) to replace the incumbent Chief Executive. Won by the former non-official convener of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Leung Chun-ying, the election was the most competitive as it was the first election with more than one pro-Beijing candidate since the 1996 election.
The incumbent Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, had been elected to serve the remainder of the five-year term which was left unserved, due to the midterm resignation of his predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa. He had served his own full five year term and was ineligible to run for a re-election to a full third term as stated in the Basic Law. Leung Chun-ying ran a successful campaign against Chief Secretary for Administration, Henry Tang, who was seen as the favorite candidate by Beijing officials and business tycoons. The pan-democrats also successfully fielded their own candidate, The Democratic Party chairman, and Legislative Councilor Albert Ho, who won the primary against another pan-democrat legislator Frederick Fung, former chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) on 8 January 2012.
The campaign was marked by scandals, dirty tactics, and smears from both Tang's and Leung's sides, notably Henry Tang illegal basement controversy.So, Peter (21 March 2012). "Managing the chief executive election campaign". South China Morning Post In the wake of the scandals which damaged Tang's popularity, the election was ultimately won by Leung Chun-ying, who received 689 electoral votes in the Election Committee with the help of the central government's Liaison Office.
Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism According to Article 44 of the Basic Law, the Chief Executive must be a Chinese citizenBasiclaw.org.hk. "Basiclaw.org.hk ." HK Basic law pdf. Retrieved on 28 March 2010.EAC.gov.hk. "EAC.gov.hk ." Nomination of Candidates. Retrieved on 28 March 2010. who is a permanent resident of the HKSAR with no right of abode in any foreign country. The individual must be at least 40 years old and has been residing in Hong Kong for a continuous period of no less than 20 years. Article 47 further requires that the Chief Executive be a person of integrity, dedicated to his or her duties. The 1,200-member Election Committee which was elected in the 2011 Election Committee Subsector Elections, which commenced its term of office on 1 February 2012, is composed of 1,044 members elected from 35 sub-sectors, 60 members nominated by the religious sub-sector and 96 ex-officio members, who are members of the Legislative Council or Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress. The election committee has no legitimacy in the eyes of the general public, according to Christine Loh.
Nominations for the 2012 election opened on 14 February and closed on 29 February. Each candidacy for Chief Executive must be supported by at least 150 nominations from members of the Election Committee; no EC member may nominate more than one candidate. The election proper takes place by secret ballot, with each EC member having one vote, on 25 March 2012. The successful candidate shall have secured valid votes from more than half the total stipulated number of members, namely 601 votes. If the first round of voting fails to give rise to an outright winner, a second round of voting shall be held the same day after eliminating the lowest-scoring candidate. If a second round still fails to produce an outright winner, the election will be re-run. For this, nominations will reopen, and balloting will take place six weeks later – in this case on 6 May.
Under current laws, candidates are not required to disclose their political affiliations; however, section 31 of Chief Executive Election Ordinance (Cap 569) stipulates that a person elected as the Chief Executive must "publicly make a statutory declaration to the effect that he is not a member of any political party".LCQ2: Elections ordinances, Hong Kong Government, 18 January 2012.
Candidates
Nominees Candidate Born Party Most recent position Campaign Nominationsreceived Henry Tang唐英年 (age ) Nonpartisan Chief Secretary for Administration Leung Chun-ying梁振英 (age ) Nonpartisan Non-official Convenor of theExecutive Council Albert Ho何俊仁 (age ) Democratic Party Member of the Legislative Counciland Democratic Party Chairman
Withdrawn Candidate Born Party Most recent position Campaign Nominationsreceived Regina Ip葉劉淑儀 (age ) New People's Party Member of the Legislative Counciland New People's PartyChairwoman Withdrawn Frederick Fung馮檢基 (age ) Hong Kong Association forDemocracy and People'sLivelihood Member of the Legislative Council Withdrawn Other minor candidates included Kan Kit-hung (簡傑鴻), Yu Wing-yin (余永賢), consultant of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, Wu Sai-chuen (胡世全), a former DAB member and Roger Chan Yuet-tung (陳乙東). None of them was successfully nominated.
Expressed interest but did not run Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, President of the Legislative Council
Pre-nomination events The non-official convenor of the Executive Council Leung Chun-ying announced his plan to run on 9 September and resigned from his post in the government in mid-September 2011. Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang, considered the first choice of Beijing, resigned from the government in late September 2011. Rita Fan and Regina Ip also said they were considering running for the post, but dropped out on 15 December. Fan lost a lot of public support and respect by taking six months to consider her candidacy. After much prevarication-induced speculation, Fan announced that she would not participate because her age and health would become concerns into the CE term; and she endorsed Henry Tang instead.
Pan-democrats' primary Civic Party legislator Alan Leong who contested the 2007 Chief Executive election expressed an interest in standing again but later announced that the Civic Party would not join the election. Albert Ho, the chairman of the Democratic Party decided to run for the post on 4 October 2011. Frederick Fung, former chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), also expressed his interest in running for the post, and officially announced his decision to participate in the election on 8 December 2011.
After winning over 150 seats in the Election Committee subsector elections, the pan-democrats conducted the "Pan-dem Chief Executive Primary Election" to decide on a unified candidate for the pan-democrat camp on 8 January 2012. The organising committee consisted of 7 members, representing the Democratic Party, the Civic Party, the ADPL, the Neo Democrats, the Professional Commons, the Power for Democracy and the Hong Kong Democratic Development Network respectively. The 4 co-organising political parties agreed to nominate the winner of the primary election. However, some pan-democratic parties, including the League of Social Democrats, the People Power and the Labour Party, were against the primary election and the "small-circle election" at all. All Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or over were eligible to vote at the 74 polling stations; 33,932 votes were cast. The result combined the public voting and the poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme between 3 and 6 January with equal weights. Albert Ho won with 67.2% in the voting and 54.6% in the poll.
+ Chief Executive pro-democracy primary results Party Candidate Ballots Polls Totalscores Results % Results % Albert Ho 22,148 67.24 217 54.66 60.9 Frederick Fung 10,791 32.76 180 45.34 39.1 Abstain 993 611 Total 33,932 1,008
Early 2012 After Henry Tang became embroiled in an unauthorised building works scandal in February 2012, the field of potential pro-Beijing candidates once again opened up: New People's Party legislator Regina Ip re-announced her interest in running for the post on 20 February; at the same time, Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) also said he was "seriously considering" running for the post.Lee, Colleen; Cheung, Gary; Chong, Tanna (18 February 2012). "Legco president eyes chief race". South China Morning Post In addition to Rita Fan, Financial Secretary John Tsang and Secretary for Development Carrie Lam, businessman Victor Fung and Joseph Yam were touted by pundits as possible candidates.Ng, Kang-chung; So, Peter; Lee, Colleen (18 February 2012). "Fan may be back in contention, say analysts". South China Morning Post Tsang's final decision not to stand, after ten days of deliberations,"Tsang Yok-sing 'won't run for CE'" 27 February 2012. RTHK. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. was influenced by concerns about the intrusion of party politics into the chief executive race, and the effect of his candidature (and potential success in getting elected) for the DAB in the forthcoming Legislative Council elections in September.Tam, Tammy (28 February 2012) "Beijing gets its two-horse race as Tsang backs out". South China Morning Post. Ip failed to receive enough nominations before the deadline and thus did not qualify to stand for the election."Regina Ip fails in bid to join CE race". RTHK. 29 February 2012
Nominations The nomination period ran from 14 to 29 February 2012, which Albert Ho was the first declared candidate to submit his nomination, having secured 184 votes (including his own) from Election Committee members. He failed to capture 21 of the known pan-democrat votes.Siu, Phila (15 February 2012). "Ho first off the blocks despite holdouts drag". The Standard.
Henry Tang was the second to submit his nomination; he did so earlier than planned on 20 February after having secured 379 nominations, days after his implication in an illegal structure scandal and on the day the press published allegations of yet another of his extra-marital liaisons."New scandal as Tang submits nominations". RTHK 20 February 2012. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Tang's nominees included most of the major local property magnates: Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development, New World Development's Henry Cheng and Sun Hung Kai Properties' Raymond and Thomas Kwok, Chinese Estates Holdings chairman Joseph Lau,Siu, Phila; Luk, Eddie (21 February 2012) "Count me in". The Standard Robert Ng of Sino Group, Hopewell Holdings chairman Gordon Wu;Siu, Phila; Luk, Eddie (22 February 2012) "Popularity of Tang tumbles after scandal". The Standard Tang is also endorsed by Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat and film director Stephen Chow.
Tang's early nomination was seen by some pundits as a strategic move to lock in his gains early; others suggest that it was a pre-emptive move ahead of pronouncements from Beijing.Ma, Mary (22 February 2012) "Beijing's take on Tang move". The Standard According to an analysis by the South China Morning Post, support for Tang amongst 12 major property conglomerates accounting for at least 64 seats on the Election Committee was by no means unequivocal: they pledged 38 of these votes to Tang. Three had given more than half of their nominations to Tang, while four gave only half; Wharf Holdings and Swire gave only their chairmen's votes to Tang.Chong, Tanna (23 February 2012). "Big guns line up for Tang". South China Morning Post