Hong Kong Basic Law Article 45

Hong Kong Basic Law Article 45 (Chinese: 香港基本法第四十五條) is a controversial article in the Basic Law (constitution) of Hong Kong. It states that the Chief executive should be chosen by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee as an eventual goal. Its speedy implementation is advocated by the Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group.

Article 45 gives the requirements for choosing the Chief Executive:

Details of procedures to be adopted are found in Annex I to the Basic Law where the same expression "broadly representative" is used to describe the constituency of the Election Committee notwithstanding its only representing a tiny section of the total number of registered electors.

The focus of initial controversy was on the timetable for progress towards universal suffrage but, having extracted a promise of a timetable of reform (2016 for the legislature and 2017 for the Chief Executive) heated debate ensued over the details of the election systems to be employed. Positions on both sides hardened in early 2013, with the newly appointed chairman of the PRC government's Law Committee, Qiao Xiaoyang, espousing hard-to-define pre-conditions on CE candidature, ("love China and Hong Kong" and "not oppose the Central Government") including declaring that Beijing would refuse to appoint an unsupportive Hong Kong CE even if democratically elected. Pro-democracy groups formed the Alliance for True Democracy in support of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace protest movement devised by University of Hong Kong Associate Professor Benny Tai, demanding unconditional universal suffrage.

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