1997 President of the Hong Kong Provisional Legislative Council election

Election for the President of theProvisional Legislative Council legislative no 1995 President of the Hong Kong Legislative Council election 1995 25 January 1997 1998 President of the Hong Kong Legislative Council election 1998 Votes Rita Fan (cropped).jpg Rita Fan Independent politician 33 (55%) Andrew Wong in 2018 (cropped).png Andrew Wong Independent politician 27 (45%) President Rita Fan Independent The election for the President of the Provisional Legislative Council took place on 25 January 1997 for members of the Provisional Legislative Council of Hong Kong to among themselves elect the President for the duration of the council. Rita Fan from the pro-Beijing camp defeated President of the colonial Legislative Council Andrew Wong and was elected. Election The election of the President through secret ballot was held during the first-ever meeting of the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC).Annual Report of The Provisional Legislative Council https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/english/sec/a_rpt9798.pdf Legislative Council of Hong Kong The PLC was forced to meet in Shenzhen to remain outside the reach of Hong Kong law, as democracy groups called it illegal and threatened to take the PLC to court if its members try to gather in Hong Kong. The meeting was closed to the public, and journalists watched the proceedings on closed-circuit television.Richburg Keith B. 1997-01-26 SHADOW LEGISLATURE MEETS OUTSIDE HONG KONG en-US Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/01/26/shadow-legislature-meets-outside-hong-kong/61cc4f1d-9c3a-4381-b86d-de98c1d0eeb9/ 2023-02-03 0190-8286 Rita Fan, a key player in committees overseeing the handover with solid connections with women's groups and Beijing, beat the current Legislative Council president, Andrew Wong.Pro-China politician to head future Hong Kong legislature 1997-01-25 http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9701/25/hong.kong/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20030120013135/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9701/25/hong.kong/index.html dead January 20, 2003 2023-02-03 CNN Results Candidate Votes %Rita Fan 3355 Andrew Wong 27 45Turnout 60 100 Reaction Chris Patten, Governor of Hong Kong, blasted the gathering as "a bad day for Hong Kong", and criticised the PLC for having "no legitimacy, no credibility and no authority in Hong Kong." Earlier calling the shadow legislature "a rather exotic debating society that meets on occasional Saturday mornings", Patten said he hopes "it will not embarrass Hong Kong too much". CNN described Hong Kong's democratic future "may have suffered a blow" following this election. Pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong also disapproved the election, with Emily Lau from the Frontier believing Fan might politicise the presidency and "change the role of the president from speaker to a super leader of the body" for her strident stance.1997-01-26 Provisional Legislature meeting https://www.scmp.com/article/182997/provisional-legislature-meeting 2023-02-03 South China Morning Post en Zhou Nan, China's de facto ambassador to Hong Kong, hailed Fan's election and suggested it would be a bad idea for the PLC to hold off until June before starting work on law-making. Zhou also claimed "now Hong Kong has a chance to create for itself a truly representative form of government."HK shadow legislature elects president https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/01/25/HK-shadow-legislature-elects-president/2290854168400/ 2023-02-03 UPI Archives en References Category:1997 elections in China Category:1997 in Hong Kong Category:President of the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections