2005 Hong Kong Election Committee Subsector by-elections
The 2005 Election Committee subsector by-elections were held on 1 May 2005 to fill the 33 vacancies in 17 subsectors of the Election Committee for electing the Hong Kong Chief Executive in the Chief Executive election in following March. Background. Tung Chee Hwa had long been an unpopular Chief Executive, especially after the controversies over the Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law which caused more than 500,000 people to march on 1 July 2003. Tung claimed his health was deteriorating early in 2005 and suddenly resigned on 10 March  2005 which triggered the election of the Chief Executive. The Election Committee by-elections were held to update the membership of the Election Committee, filling in the vacancies in the Election Committee. The pro-democracy camp, with Democratic Party's chairman Lee Wing-tat as the Chief Executive candidate, attempted to get over 100 nominations from the Election Committee to enter the race to prevent Donald Tsang being elected uncontested. Vacancies. There were 33 vacancies in 17 subsectors in which 27 were from the regular subsectors and 6 from the Religious Subsector. Out of these 33 vacancies, 19 of them  arose from members being dead, two from members having resigned from the Election Committee and 12 from members being deemed to have resigned from the Election Committee. Reasons for the 33 vacancies ascertained in 17 subsectors are as follows: Nominations. The six empty seats in the religious sector were nominated by the religious councils. Harry Ha Kay-wai from the Chinese Muslim Cultural and Fraternal Association, Thomas Soo Yee-po from the Hong Kong Christian Council, Tong Wai-ki, Cheung Kam-hung and Lo Wai-kon from the Hong Kong Taoist Association, and Wu Tai-chow from the Confucian Academy  duly nominated as the members of the Election Committee Religious Subsector. The nominations for the other 25 seats from the regular subsectors were accepted over a one-week timeframe from 9 April to 15 April. 12 candidates in 7 subsectors were elected uncontested. Results. Contested elections.