The Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007 Pro-democracy primary was a primary election held for the selection of a unified candidate for all the parties representing the Pan-democrats, also referred to as the "pro-democracy camp", in the Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007

Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007

The Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007 was precipitated by the death of the then chairman of the Pro-Beijing DAB, Ma Lik on 8 August 2007.It was the second by-election in a geographical constituency to be held since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997 and the largest remainder proportional...

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Scope of Pan-democrats

The pro-democracy parties and organizations participating in the coordination are Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Hong Kong)

The Democratic Party is a pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong. It was established on 2 October 1994. The party is currently the second largest party in the Legislative Council, headed by Chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan and, following the November 2008 merger with the Frontier, had around 745...

, 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...

, League of Social Democrats

League of Social Democrats

The League of Social Democrats or LSD is a radical pro-democratic political party in Hong Kong. Its declared purpose is to "take a clear-cut stand to defend the interests of the grassroots"...

, The Frontier

The Frontier (Hong Kong)

The Frontier was a relatively radical pro-democracy political group in the Hong Kong. It was established on 26 August 1996. The group was headed by former convenor Emily Lau Wai-hing since its establishment as a loose group of individual pro-democracy activists.On 23 November 2008, the Frontier...

, Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions

Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions

The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions is a pro-Beijing labour and political group in Hong Kong. It is the largest labour group in Hong Kong with over 341,000 members in 181 affiliates and 62 associated trade unions.-Policies:...

, Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre, Civic Act-up

Civic Act-up

Civic Act-up is a small pro-democracy political group in the Hong Kong, China. It was founded on 24 September 2003 by a group of relatively young activists with the encouragement of Legislative Councillor Cyd Ho Sau-lan, to challenge the existing pro-Government District Councillers in Wanchai in...

, 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...

, Women's Alliance (婦盟) and the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood

Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood

The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood is a pro-democracy political party in the Hong Kong. It was established on 26 October 1986. The current chairman of the party is Bruce Liu.-History:...

. The selection mechanism was be organized by Frederick Fung

Frederick Fung

Frederick Fung Kin-kee SBS, JP is the former chairman of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood , a pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong...

, 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...

, Ronny Tong

Ronny Tong

Ronny Tong Ka-wah QC, SC is a Senior Counsel and current member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , representing the New Territories East constituency. He is also a member of the Civic Party Executive Committee....

 and Joseph Lee

Joseph Lee

Joseph Lee may refer to:* Joe Lee, professor of Irish history* Joseph Lee , Scottish poet* Joseph Lee , father of the playground movement* J. Bracken Lee, former Governor of Utah...

 (李國麟)

Selection mechanism

The selection mechanism for the Democrat candidate consisted of a public debate, an opinion poll and primary elections. The weightings for opinion poll counts was 50%, the 300 delegates 30%, and the Legislative and District Councilors 10% each:

• a debate was held at the University of Hong Kong on September 24.
• after the debate, the 25 pro-democracy Legislative Councilors, the 28 pro-democracy Hong Kong Island District Councilors and 300 delegates (30 each from the 10 organizations) participated in a primary election.
• an opinion poll of at least 1000 eligible voters was carried out by HKU POP between 25 and 29 September.

The debate format is based on the ones held for the 2007 Chief Executive election. University professors Ma Ngok (馬嶽), Chan Kin Man (陳健民) and Benny Tai (戴耀廷) agreed to question the candidates while culture critic Leung Man-tao (梁文道) has agreed to act as moderator. 100 members of the public participated and asked questions. The debate was broadcast live on television and radio. Rev. Chu Yiu-Ming (朱耀明) acted as the returning officer for the voting.

The selection mechanism cost an estimated HK$140,000, the result announced on September 30.

Chan won the primary easily, with 77.3 points compared to Lo's 22.7 points.