Election Committee
| Election Committee | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 選舉委員會 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Syún géui wái yùhn wuih |
| Jyutping | Syun2 geoi2 wai2 jyun4 wui6 |
The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong Kong which states that "the Chief Executive shall be elected by a broadly representative Election Committee in accordance with this Law and appointed by the Central People's Government." It is renewed every five years upon expiration of the sitting Chief Executive's term. It has 1,200 members for the 2017 election. The Election Committee has been under criticism for its narrow electorate basis which was mocked as "small-circle" and its composition which heavily favours the business interest.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 provides that the Chief Executive "shall be selected by elections or through consultations held locally and be appointed by the Central People's Government. The system of Election Committee established in the Basic Law to provide an indirect election for the Chief Executive by a "broadly representative" Election Committee. Besides the first Chief Executive was elected by the 400-member Selection Committee, all Chief Executives since then have been elected by the Election Committee.
The New York Times wrote that sectors that were politically closer to Beijing, such as traditional Chinese medicine, were over-represented in proportion to their share of the population, when compared to sectors deemed hostile, such as social workers or lawyers.
Since the electors must serve for no more than five years, a new election must occur, and the chief executive resignation would cause an interesting matter of timing, as to whether the old or new college of electors would select the new chief executive.
The Election Committee elections have been quite irregular. They were held in 1998 and 2000, but none (except for the 2002 by-election) have been held since. Former Financial Secretary and Chief Secretary Donald Tsang became the new Chief Executive elected on 16 June 2005, following Tung Chee-hwa's resignation on 12 March and, since electoral law states that an election must be held within 120 days of the vacancy, an election would have to have been held on 10 July at the latest.
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