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Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 52.06% | ||||||||||||||||||
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The 2007 Hong Kong Island by-election was held on 2 December 2007 and was won by Anson Chan with 54.6% of the votes cast.[1] It was precipitated by the death of the then chairman of the Pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) Ma Lik on 8 August 2007.[2]
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 representation electoral system was adopted in 1998, coincidentally in the same constituency – Hong Kong Island.
There were eight candidates in all, all standing as independents. However, the two front-runners had respectively secured the backing of the largest political groupings, Pan-democrats and Beijing loyalists. The pro-democracy camp agreed to unite behind a single candidate, Anson Chan, former Chief Secretary for Administration, selected through a selection process; the Liberal Party and the DAB bargained behind closed doors to select Regina Ip, the former Secretary for Security who resigned following the 500,000-strong 2003 1 July protest.