page_title: 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election
section_title: 19 March 2017 – Election Committee
hierarchical_section_title: 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election / Debates and forums / 19 March 2017 – Election Committee
caption_attribution_description: 中文（香港）‎: 香港特首選舉候選人林鄭月娥(左起)、曾俊華及胡國興出席選舉論壇(VOA湯惠芸攝)
context_page_description: The 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election was held on 26 March 2017 for the 5th term of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the highest office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Former Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam beat former Financial Secretary John Tsang and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing, receiving 777 votes from the 1,194-member Election Committee.
  The two front-runners, Lam and Tsang, emerged after incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying surprisingly announced he would not run for a second term. Both resigned from their posts in the government. Despite leading in the polls, Tsang struggled to receive nominations from the pro-Beijing electors and had to rely heavily on pro-democrats. Lam, with the PRC's Liaison Office actively lobbying for her, attracted 580 nominations, almost half in the Election Committee and only 21 votes short of winning the final election, while Tsang and Woo received 165 and 180 nominations respectively, most of which came from the pro-democracy camp which consisted of about 320 members.
context_section_description: A two-hour forum was co-organised by a group of Election Committee members from both the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing camps on 19 March 2017 at AsiaWorld-Expo. Some 507 of the 1,194 election committee members attended the forum. The three candidates took 21 questions from the floor, 19 of which were from the democrats as the pro-Beijing electors did not submit their questions. Lam made a dig at John Tsang's "paperless office" when he was in office as Financial Secretary – an implication of Tsang's laid-back working style. Tsang retorted by saying that it was more important to "work smart" than "work hard". John Tsang also mocked Lam by stating that she would be a "three-low" Chief Executive with low popularity, low energy and low legitimacy. Woo criticised Tsang and Lam for passing the buck on the incumbent government's mistakes. Political scientist Ivan Choy said Tsang was the best performer although Lam also made big progress. According to a poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (HKUPOP) after the forum, 62 per cent out of the 717 respondents said they would vote for Tsang if eligible after watching the forum, against 24 per cent for Lam and seven per cent for Woo.
caption: All three candidates attended the election forum organised by the Election Committee members.
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