Article 46 of the Hong Kong Basic Law states:
-
- The term of office of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be five years. He or she may serve for not more than two consecutive terms.
This became a part of a legal dispute in 2005 after the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa. The question arose as to whether his successor would serve a full five-year term or would only serve the remainder of Tung's term. Those who supported him for a full five-year term, which included much of the Hong Kong legal community, argued that this is the straightforward reading of the article. But those who argued for a partial term argued that a partial term was the clear legislative intent of the article, as filling a partial term is the practice within the People's Republic of China.
The difference was in part due to different legal traditions. Although later modified by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, at the time of the controversy in 2005, the British Westminster system did not run elections according to fixed schedules, whereas the People's Republic of China tends to have terms and elections according to fixed schedules, similar to the practice of the United States.
Famous quotes containing the words basic, law and/or article:
“Our basic ideas about how to parent are encrusted with deeply felt emotions and many myths. One of the myths of parenting is that it is always fun and games, joy and delight. Everyone who has been a parent will testify that it is also anxiety, strife, frustration, and even hostility. Thus most major parenting- education formats deal with parental emotions and attitudes and, to a greater or lesser extent, advocate that the emotional component is more important than the knowledge.”
—Bettye M. Caldwell (20th century)
“If one mistreats citizens of foreign countries, one infringes upon one’s duty toward one’s own subjects; for thus one exposes them to the law of retribution.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Reviews and magazines are at best ephemeral & superficial reading. Who thinks of the grand article of last year in any given review?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)