Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2007
Encyclopedia
An election was held on 25 March 2007 to select the Chief Executive of Hong Kong
at AsiaWorld-Expo
. The third Chief Executive term began on 1 July 2007. The CE was selected by an 800-member Election Committee
(EC) (which represented about 0.01% of Hong Kong's population).
This was the first CE Election in which there was more than one candidate, as Alan Leong
(梁家傑), a member of the Civic Party
, ran against the incumbent, Donald Tsang
(曾蔭權), who was finishing the Tung Chee Hwa
's second term in 2005. It has been said that the competitive nature of this election, with debates held between the candidates, changed Hong Kong's political culture.
Donald Tsang was re-elected with 649 votes to Alan Leong's 123. There were also 5 invalid votes.
All pro-democracy candidates in Accountancy, Education, Engineering, Health services, Higher education, IT and Legal won; the pro-democracy Legal candidates won all the seats in their sector.
had been widely expected to secure re-election by a landslide, as he had received nominations from 641 members of the same body. The pro-democracy candidate, Alan Leong
of the Civic Party
(公民黨), secured 132 nominations, ensuring that he would contest the election, the first opposed CE election.
Although the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion, it was hoped that the debates would stimulate discussion about the future direction of Hong Kong, were meant for the respective candidates to put forward their political visions for public scrutiny.
had suggested that those casting blank votes could be tracked down. This caused a furore, prompting a senior mainland official and top local advisers to Beijing to defend the secrecy of the Chief Executive election vote.
Ho later issued a statement clarifying: "According to traditional wisdom, those who make mischief will one day be unveiled," "I was merely reminding those who intend to cast blank votes that the day will come when they will be unveiled. My remarks carried no other implication."
.
The first debate was held on 1 March 2007, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
(香港會議展覽中心) from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, presided by Rita Fan
(范徐麗泰); the second 90-minute debate was held on 15 March 2007 at the TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, co-organized by the 8 main media corporations in Hong Kong. Both debates were broadcast live by TVB, ATV
and RTHK.
d. The general public was not allowed to attend the debate but their questions to the candidates were collected in advance through fax or e-mails. A total of 3,409 questions were submitted, and 6 of them were selected for the candidates to answer in the debate.
Direct questioning between the candidates was prohibited. The 90 minute debate was divided into 4 sessions. The two candidates were first given 3 minutes to deliver their election platform; Leong went first. After that there was a question-and-answer session. Each of the chosen questioners had 30 seconds in which to raise questions, and the candidates were allowed 20 minutes to respond to each question without using any props, notes, charts or diagrams.
After the Q&A, Tsang was the first one to give his conclusion of the debate.
Leong challenged Tsang to support the target of universal suffrage in 2012. Leong suggested the central government's pragmatic and rational attitude was amply demonstrated by the total trust it put in Tsang, once considered a remnant of the British colonial government. Tsang said it would be "dangerous and unworkable" if his opponent was elected.
(梁國雄) interrupted the debate just before the introduction of election platform by Tsang. He mocked both by putting on a bowtie and put a handkerchief in his pocket, adopted clichés of Tsang and Leong respectively. He crawled like a dog in front of the stage and shouted slogans opposing the small-circle election, but was escorted out by 10 security guards.
Other organisations also protested outside the venue concerned mainly about the lack of public participation in the forum, and also some social problems which existed in society.
Most of the local newspapers did not report much on the contents of the election platform proposed by the two candidates, but rather reported more on their debating skills, behaviour, presentation and even how they dressed in the forum.
A survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong shows that after the debate Tsang still leads. A public opinion programme organised by the University of Hong Kong has shown that 46.5% of the 510 respondents considered Tsang outperformed Leong while 33.9% of them thought the opposite. 67.9% of them said that they would vote for Tsang as the Chief Executive and only 21.7% of them would vote for Leong if they had the voting right. Tsang apparently won public support because of his strength in the details of policy issues, while Leong's understanding of public finances and other policies seemed to be weaker than Tsang.
Both candidates gained increased support from the general public after debate as indicated by the survey results, compared to a previous survey where only 65.3% and 16.1% of the respondents support Tsang and Leong being elected respectively. Nevertheless, all the figures reflect an unexpected performance displayed by Leong, who adopted a combative approach and seized every opportunity to attack Tsang's record, especially in terms of environmental protection and the possibility of universal suffrage by 2012. On the other hand, Tsang appeared to present himself as a statesman defending his record, rather than attacking the weaknesses of Leong.
A survey conducted right after the debate by the Public Governance Programme of Lingnan University
showed that 61.4% of the 611 respondents "supported" Tsang while just 25.9% of them supported Leong. In the survey, 26.7% of the respondents had an improved impression upon Tsang after the debate; while 13.1% of them had a less favourable impression, and 57.4% of them had an unchanged impression of Tsang. By contrast, 36.5% of the 611 respondents had a more favourable impression of Leong.
Liberal Party Chairman, James Tien said that although Tsang's campaign office apparently "lacked preparation", his performance "would not undermine the central government's support for him".
On the other hand, faced with certain defeat at the poll, Leong said that "Hong Kong has triumphed in this first ever contested race in Hong Kong and China's democratic history." And he vowed to return in the 2012 universal suffrage election. In response, NPC chairman Wu Bangguo, was quoted as replying the final decision on matters related to Hong Kong's political system rested with the central government and not the SAR government.
Emily Lau
of the Frontier was one such critic. "It will be a beautiful misunderstanding if some people believe they need not do anything more and that universal suffrage will be introduced some day,", she said.
On the day before the EC elections, the Civil Human Rights Front
organised a protest where they walked backwards around LegCo 7 times, then marched slowly to Central Government Offices
, symbolising the great leap backwards for democracy which they believed the EC represented. Leung Kwok-hung trapped himself in a giant bird cage and followed Leong around on EC election day to protest Leong's participation.
Chief Executive of Hong Kong
The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is the President of the Executive Council of Hong Kong and head of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The position was created to replace the Governor of Hong Kong, who was the head of the Hong Kong government during British rule...
at AsiaWorld-Expo
AsiaWorld-Expo
The AsiaWorld-Expo is one of the two major convention and exhibition facilities in Hong Kong along with Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was opened on 21 December 2005 by Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, and it is operated by AsiaWorld-Expo Management Limited...
. The third Chief Executive term began on 1 July 2007. The CE was selected by an 800-member Election Committee
Election Committee
The Election Committee is an 800-member electoral college in the politics of Hong Kong. It was established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong Kong. This article defines the method of electing the Chief Executive. It is renewed every five years when the sitting Chief Executive's term has expired...
(EC) (which represented about 0.01% of Hong Kong's population).
This was the first CE Election in which there was more than one candidate, as Alan Leong
Alan Leong
Kah Kit Alan Leong , SC is a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon East geographical constituency and leader of the Civic Party. He is also vice-chairperson of the Independent Police Complaints Council.-Early career:...
(梁家傑), a member of the Civic Party
Civic Party
Civic Party is a liberal democratic political party in Hong Kong.The Civic Party is currently the third largest political party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, with five members securing seats in the 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council elections...
, ran against the incumbent, Donald Tsang
Donald Tsang
Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, GBM, KBE is the current Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of the Government of Hong Kong....
(曾蔭權), who was finishing the Tung Chee Hwa
Tung Chee Hwa
Tung Chee Hwa, GBM was the first Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China....
's second term in 2005. It has been said that the competitive nature of this election, with debates held between the candidates, changed Hong Kong's political culture.
Donald Tsang was re-elected with 649 votes to Alan Leong's 123. There were also 5 invalid votes.
Election committee
The pro-democracy camp had fielded 156 candidates in the EC membership contest, and they had initially expected to win 72 seats. The democrats actually won 114 seats, from 137 candidates. There were in addition about twenty pro-democracy LegCo members who are ex officio members of the EC who were expected to back Leong, assuring Leong of the 100 nominations needed.All pro-democracy candidates in Accountancy, Education, Engineering, Health services, Higher education, IT and Legal won; the pro-democracy Legal candidates won all the seats in their sector.
Voting
Incumbent Donald TsangDonald Tsang
Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, GBM, KBE is the current Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of the Government of Hong Kong....
had been widely expected to secure re-election by a landslide, as he had received nominations from 641 members of the same body. The pro-democracy candidate, Alan Leong
Alan Leong
Kah Kit Alan Leong , SC is a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon East geographical constituency and leader of the Civic Party. He is also vice-chairperson of the Independent Police Complaints Council.-Early career:...
of the Civic Party
Civic Party
Civic Party is a liberal democratic political party in Hong Kong.The Civic Party is currently the third largest political party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, with five members securing seats in the 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council elections...
(公民黨), secured 132 nominations, ensuring that he would contest the election, the first opposed CE election.
Although the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion, it was hoped that the debates would stimulate discussion about the future direction of Hong Kong, were meant for the respective candidates to put forward their political visions for public scrutiny.
Controversy
In an apparent attempt to maximise votes for Tsang, Stanley HoStanley Ho
Stanley Ho, GBM, GLM, GBS, GML, OBE , also known as Ho Hung Sun, Stanley Ho Hung Sun, is an entrepreneur in Hong Kong and Macau. Ho is sometimes nicknamed "The King of Gambling", reflecting the government-granted monopoly he held of the Macau gambling industry for 40 years...
had suggested that those casting blank votes could be tracked down. This caused a furore, prompting a senior mainland official and top local advisers to Beijing to defend the secrecy of the Chief Executive election vote.
Ho later issued a statement clarifying: "According to traditional wisdom, those who make mischief will one day be unveiled," "I was merely reminding those who intend to cast blank votes that the day will come when they will be unveiled. My remarks carried no other implication."
Election debates
The first debate consisted of an audience of 900, mainly the politicians, including the 530 Election Committee members. The public was excluded. The second debate consisted of an audience of 200 people randomly chosen by the University of Hong Kong and the Lingnan UniversityLingnan University (Hong Kong)
The Lingnan University is a public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. It was granted full university status on 30 July 1999.The Lingnan University administration believes that it provides students with a quality education distinguished by the best liberal arts tradition from both East and West...
.
The first debate was held on 1 March 2007, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre is one of the two major convention and exhibition venues in Hong Kong, along with AsiaWorld-Expo. It is located in Wan Chai North, Hong Kong Island. Built along the Victoria Harbour, it is linked by covered walkways to nearby hotels and commercial...
(香港會議展覽中心) from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, presided by Rita Fan
Rita Fan
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai GBM GBS CBE JP was the President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong after the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1997. She was the first woman to hold that position....
(范徐麗泰); the second 90-minute debate was held on 15 March 2007 at the TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, co-organized by the 8 main media corporations in Hong Kong. Both debates were broadcast live by TVB, ATV
Asia Television Limited
Asia Television Limited is one of the two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being rival Television Broadcasts Limited . It launched in 1957 under the name Rediffusion Television as the first television station in Hong Kong...
and RTHK.
The first debate
This was the first time for Hong Kong to have a broadcasting debate between the Chief Executive candidates. Citizens expected the 2 candidates to have an in-depth discussion about the policy in the future.Format
530 members of the Election Committee attended the forum, which was stage-manageStage management
Stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production. It encompasses a variety of activities, including organizing the production and coordinating communications between various personnel...
d. The general public was not allowed to attend the debate but their questions to the candidates were collected in advance through fax or e-mails. A total of 3,409 questions were submitted, and 6 of them were selected for the candidates to answer in the debate.
Direct questioning between the candidates was prohibited. The 90 minute debate was divided into 4 sessions. The two candidates were first given 3 minutes to deliver their election platform; Leong went first. After that there was a question-and-answer session. Each of the chosen questioners had 30 seconds in which to raise questions, and the candidates were allowed 20 minutes to respond to each question without using any props, notes, charts or diagrams.
After the Q&A, Tsang was the first one to give his conclusion of the debate.
Issues
Questions raised by 22 members of the Election Committee and 7 citizens covered areas of democracy (doubts on universal suffrage), economic development, educational reform, etc. The issues which drew most heated argument from both candidates concerned democratic development and the relationship between central and SAR governments.Leong challenged Tsang to support the target of universal suffrage in 2012. Leong suggested the central government's pragmatic and rational attitude was amply demonstrated by the total trust it put in Tsang, once considered a remnant of the British colonial government. Tsang said it would be "dangerous and unworkable" if his opponent was elected.
Protests
Election Committee member "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hungLeung Kwok-hung
Leung Kwok-hung , also known as Long Hair , is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , a founding member of the League of Social Democrats and a democratic political activist.-Biography:Leung is a self-proclaimed Trotskyist and a member of April Fifth Action, a radical socialist...
(梁國雄) interrupted the debate just before the introduction of election platform by Tsang. He mocked both by putting on a bowtie and put a handkerchief in his pocket, adopted clichés of Tsang and Leong respectively. He crawled like a dog in front of the stage and shouted slogans opposing the small-circle election, but was escorted out by 10 security guards.
Other organisations also protested outside the venue concerned mainly about the lack of public participation in the forum, and also some social problems which existed in society.
Outcome
The first debate attracted 1.863 million viewers, approximately 27 percent of the local population.Most of the local newspapers did not report much on the contents of the election platform proposed by the two candidates, but rather reported more on their debating skills, behaviour, presentation and even how they dressed in the forum.
A survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong shows that after the debate Tsang still leads. A public opinion programme organised by the University of Hong Kong has shown that 46.5% of the 510 respondents considered Tsang outperformed Leong while 33.9% of them thought the opposite. 67.9% of them said that they would vote for Tsang as the Chief Executive and only 21.7% of them would vote for Leong if they had the voting right. Tsang apparently won public support because of his strength in the details of policy issues, while Leong's understanding of public finances and other policies seemed to be weaker than Tsang.
Both candidates gained increased support from the general public after debate as indicated by the survey results, compared to a previous survey where only 65.3% and 16.1% of the respondents support Tsang and Leong being elected respectively. Nevertheless, all the figures reflect an unexpected performance displayed by Leong, who adopted a combative approach and seized every opportunity to attack Tsang's record, especially in terms of environmental protection and the possibility of universal suffrage by 2012. On the other hand, Tsang appeared to present himself as a statesman defending his record, rather than attacking the weaknesses of Leong.
A survey conducted right after the debate by the Public Governance Programme of Lingnan University
Lingnan University
Lingnan University can refer to two separate establishments:*Lingnan University - a university in Hong Kong*Lingnan University - a university in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in China...
showed that 61.4% of the 611 respondents "supported" Tsang while just 25.9% of them supported Leong. In the survey, 26.7% of the respondents had an improved impression upon Tsang after the debate; while 13.1% of them had a less favourable impression, and 57.4% of them had an unchanged impression of Tsang. By contrast, 36.5% of the 611 respondents had a more favourable impression of Leong.
Liberal Party Chairman, James Tien said that although Tsang's campaign office apparently "lacked preparation", his performance "would not undermine the central government's support for him".
Format
200 members of the general public were allowed to participate in this event to raise questions. This debate was divided into 3 sessions: social livelihood, politics and economics as themes for each session. During the debate, the two candidates respectively answered 9 questions from the audience and 6 from the media.Issues
During the second debate, Tsang said that the commitment to universal suffrage was enshrined in the Basic Law, a national policy which nobody could change. He promised he will start planning and negotiating the issue on the universal suffrage within the coming 5 years if he was successfully renewed in the post.On the other hand, faced with certain defeat at the poll, Leong said that "Hong Kong has triumphed in this first ever contested race in Hong Kong and China's democratic history." And he vowed to return in the 2012 universal suffrage election. In response, NPC chairman Wu Bangguo, was quoted as replying the final decision on matters related to Hong Kong's political system rested with the central government and not the SAR government.
Outcome
According to the second survey on Chief Executive Forum carried out by the University of Hong Kong, the instant poll showed that 38.9% of 520 respondents thought that Tsang's performance of was better than that of Leong, while 39.3% of the respondents thought Leong performed better. The result shows a significant difference, compared with the first instant poll, in which Mr. Leong was behind his rival.Results
| English Name | Chinese Name | Position | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Tsang Donald Tsang Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, GBM, KBE is the current Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of the Government of Hong Kong....  |
曾蔭權 | Incumbent Chief Executive | 649 |
| Alan Leong Alan Leong Kah Kit Alan Leong , SC is a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon East geographical constituency and leader of the Civic Party. He is also vice-chairperson of the Independent Police Complaints Council.-Early career:... |
梁家傑 | Civic Party Civic Party Civic Party is a liberal democratic political party in Hong Kong.The Civic Party is currently the third largest political party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, with five members securing seats in the 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council elections... legislator |
123 |
Protests
Some pro-democracy politicians boycotted the CE and EC elections, claiming that to participate would legitimise undemocratic practices.Emily Lau
Emily Lau
Emily Lau Wai-hing JP is one of two vice-chairmen of Democratic Party.She was the convenor of The Frontier...
of the Frontier was one such critic. "It will be a beautiful misunderstanding if some people believe they need not do anything more and that universal suffrage will be introduced some day,", she said.
On the day before the EC elections, the Civil Human Rights Front
Civil Human Rights Front
Civil Human Rights Front or CHRF is an organization that focuses on the issues of Hong Kong politics and livelihood, affiliates almost all the pan-democratic camps in Hong Kong. Forty-eight NGOs and political groups have been involved in the organization as of January 2006...
organised a protest where they walked backwards around LegCo 7 times, then marched slowly to Central Government Offices
Central Government Offices
The Central Government Offices houses the most major offices of the Hong Kong Government. Located in Central in Hong Kong, it occupies the lower level of Government Hill.- History :...
, symbolising the great leap backwards for democracy which they believed the EC represented. Leung Kwok-hung trapped himself in a giant bird cage and followed Leong around on EC election day to protest Leong's participation.