CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
and representatives of district-based organisations. Each of these four sectors returns 200 members. Each sector is further divided into subsectors each returning a specified number of representatives to the Election Committee by election. Members of the Legislative Council and Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress are ex officio members of the Election Committee, and the religious subsector returns its representatives to the Election Committee by nomination from designated religious bodies.
The method for returning six members to the second term of the Legislative Council by the Election Committee was the block vote system each member of the Election Committee was required to cast six votes and the result was determined by a simple majority. After the end of the second term of office of the Legislative Council, the Election Committee will no longer be responsible for returning members of the Legislative Council. The six seats thus released will be filled by members returned from geographical constituencies.
Electoral System for the Chief Executive
Under the Basic Law, the Chief Executive is selected by election or through consultations held locally, and appointed by the Central People's Government. Annex I to the Basic Law lays down the basic framework as to how the Chief Executive shall be selected through local election. It provides, inter alia, that the Chief Executive shall be elected by a broadly representative Election Committee through secret ballot on a one-person-one-vote basis.
In July 2001, the Legislative Council enacted the Chief Executive Election. Ordinance. This piece of legislation provides the domestic legal basis for holding the Chief Executive election in the HKSAR in accordance with the basic framework of the Basic Law. Among other things, it stipulates that the Chief Executive election shall be held on the first Sunday 95 days before the office of the incumbent Chief Executive becomes vacant.
In accordance with the Basic Law, the Election Committee responsible for electing the second term Chief Executive in 2002 is one and the same as the Election Committee that returned six members to the second term Legislative Council in 2000. (For the composition of the Election Committee, see the relevant section under Electoral System for the Legislative Council)
Since only one candidate, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, was validly nominated at the close of nominations, he was therefore declared elected at the 2002 Chief Executive Election by the Returning Officer in accordance with the Chief Executive Election Ordinance, on February 28, 2002. On March 4, the CPG formally announced, in accordance with the Basic Law, the appointment of Mr Tung Chee Hwa as the second term Chief Executive.
The Basic Law provides that changes to the method for selecting the Chief Executives for the terms subsequent to the year 2007 must be made with the endorsement of a two-thirds majority of all the members of the Legislative Council and the consent of the Chief Executive. Such changes are to be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for approval.
The Basic Law provides that the ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures.
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