page_title: 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Cellphones in Hong Kong during 2014 Hong Kong protests
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: The highest government office of Hong Kong, the Chief Executive, is selected by a 1,200-member Election Committee (EC) which is divided into various subsectors and dominated by pro-Beijing politicians and tycoons. Since the terms of Article 45 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong requiring "selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures" have not been implemented, the progress to universal suffrage has been the dominant issue in Hong Kong politics since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.
  In 2004, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) had ruled out universal suffrage in the 2012 Chief Executive election, but in 2007 ruled that the 2017 Chief Executive election "may be implemented by the method of universal suffrage".  On 31 August 2014, however, the NPCSC imposed the nebulous condition that "the Chief Executive shall be a person who loves the country and loves Hong Kong" and that the process of selection of two or three candidates by an undemocratic nominating committee continue. The pan-democrats viewed the restrictive nominating process as a violation of international standards for free elections, as candidates unsupportive of the central government would likely be screened out. The "831 decision", as it was called, triggered a class boycott in Hong Kong which escalated into an unprecedented 79-day large-scale occupy movement, internationally known as the "Umbrella Revolution".
  On 18 June 2015, the Legislative Council rejected the electoral reform proposal 28 votes to 8, with 33 principally pro-Beijing legislators absent in an embarrassing whip snafu.  The selection method and procedure thus remained unchanged from that employed in 2012.
caption: The 2014 sit-in protests calling for "genuine universal suffrage" were held in response to the NPCSC decision affecting the 2017 election.
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