Article 45

Article 45 is an article of the Hong Kong Basic Law. It states that the Chief Executive should be chosen by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee as an eventual goal.

Content of Article 45

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.

Background

Paragraph 3 of Annex I Section I of the Sino-British Joint Declaration provides the corresponding backing for art.45:
The earlier version of Article 45, from December 1987, contained the details of the methods for selecting the Chief Executive, which was put in the Annex I to the April 1988 version and then in the enacted version. The Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee noted that opinions were expressed on several areas of the article, including whether the Chief Executive should be appointed by the Central People's Government; that consultation is not as democratic as direct or indirect elections; and that the clause “in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress” is vague and difficult to define legally.