2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
According to the opposition, rockets struck parts of Homs at a rate of four per minute on 18 February, the most violent bombardment for two weeks. The BBC reported shells were hitting the Homs neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Inshaat, Bayada and Khaldiya, according to opposition and human rights activists. On the morning of 21 February 2012, news sources were reporting a new wave of heavy bombardment had begun, killing at least 30 people. An opposition member who was broadcasting live footage of the quarter of Bab Amr on the website Bambuser was killed in the fighting.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
American journalist Marie Colvin, working for The Sunday Times of London, was killed in Homs on 22 February during an artillery attack, along with French photographer Rémi Ochlik. In her last broadcast, an interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN, Colvin accused the Syrian Army of perpetrating the "complete and utter lie that they are only targeting terrorists." Describing what was happening as "absolutely sickening", Colvin said: "The Syrian army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians." Colvin, who had lost an eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka and had covered conflicts in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Libya, and East Timor, described the bombardment of Homs as the worst conflict she had ever experienced.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
Soon after Colvin's death, Lebanese intelligence claimed to have intercepted communications between Syrian Army officers to the effect that direct orders had been issued to target the makeshift press centre from which Colvin had been broadcasting. Jean-Pierre Perrin, a journalist for the Paris-based Liberation newspaper who had been with Colvin in Homs as recently as the previous week, claimed he had been told that the Syrian Army was "deliberately" going to shell their centre.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
Mr Perrin said the Syrians were "fully aware" that the press centre was broadcasting direct evidence of crimes against humanity, including the murdering of women and children. Perrin claimed that "[t]he Syrian Army issued orders to 'kill any journalist that set foot on Syrian soil,'" saying that he received news of the intercepted Syrian Army radio traffic upon arriving in Beirut. The Syrian government knew that if they destroyed the press centre, said Mr. Perrin, there would be "no more information coming out of Homs."


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
Activists told that 81 people, both FSA rebels and civilians, were killed the same day. One activist told that helicopters were used to identify the targets. A Lebanese official told that the Syrian government wanted to finish the battle before the referendum poll on the new Syrian constitution. On the same day, Syrian state media claimed men had killed two officers, a first lieutenant and a captain, when men fired an RPG at their car from a bridge. SANA said another member of the security forces was killed by a bomb in Homs.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
On 23 February, the Syrian army entered the Jobar area close to Bab Amr. One activist told that the army successfully cut all escape roads of Bab Amr and that unlike the previous fights, the FSA will be unable to escape.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, February bombardment
On 26 February, SANA reported that 40 rebels surrendered in Bab Amr quarter. At least 89 people died in Homs between 26 and 27 February as clashes and bombardment continued. 64 of those killed were refugees kidnapped and executed by the Syrian Army, according to opposition sources. At least 25 people were wounded in shelling on 27 February.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Government ground assault on Baba Amr
Heavy shelling continued on 29 February as government forces launched an operation to retake control of the Baba Amr neighbourhood. The Syrian government announced that the army was being sent into the area and were "cleaning" it from rebel fighters, and that the operation would be over in a matter of hours. Helicopter gunships were reported to have fired upon FSA fighters and civilians, according to people on the ground. At least 11 people were reported killed initially, including a family of five.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Government ground assault on Baba Amr
Water supplies, electricity and communications were entirely cut off in the Baba Amr district according to opposition activists. Heavy clashes continued throughout the day, as the Syrian Army's 4th Armoured Division sent in tanks and infantry. Although the FSA Farouq Brigades defending Baba Amr stated that they would fight to the last man, it was reported that some of the FSA leaders already made an escape from the district.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Government ground assault on Baba Amr
Baba Amr finally fell to government forces on the morning of 1 March, as the Free Syrian Army claimed they had made a "tactical retreat" from the area, after running low on weapons and ammunition. They made the decision to withdraw from Baba Amr and into other parts of Homs because "worsening humanitarian conditions, lack of food and medicine and water, electricity and communication cuts as well as shortages in weapons." During their retreat, 17 rebels were captured by the military and executed on the spot.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Government ground assault on Baba Amr
The activist group Avaaz, for its part, claimed they were civilians and that they were beheaded, but this was not confirmed by other sources. Afterwards, at least 10 Syrian civilians were killed by government forces, who had also turned the shopping centre into a detention area. At a later date, an FSA commander stated that out of 250 rebel fighters defending the district 114 were killed in the fighting.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Karm al-Zeitoun massacre
On 9 March, 30 tanks of the Syrian Army entered the quarter of Karm al-Zeitoun. After this, it was reported that the Syrian Army had massacred 47 women and children in the district (26 children and 21 women), some of whom had their throats slit, according to activists. The opposition claimed that the main perpetrators behind the killings were the government paramilitary force the Shabiha. The Syrian National Council (SNC), the main opposition group, called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the "massacre", which it said took place on 11 March.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Karm al-Zeitoun massacre
Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist, said: "Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their head, one little girl was mutilated and some women were raped before being killed," he said. Video footage was made of the bodies. The Syrian Government acknowledged that the massacre had indeed taken place, but claimed that "armed gangs" in the district killed them. On 13 March, opposition activists posted a video on the internet purporting to show the army shelling the district of Karm al-Zeitoun.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, March–April fighting
On 20 March, 14 were reported killed from a new round of shelling, which continued into the next day, hitting the opposition stronghold neighborhoods of Khalidiya, Qussor, and Bayada in northern Homs. The military also reportedly entered Khalidiya. The opposition activist group, the L.C.C., stated that another 40 people were killed on the second day of the bombardment, including 25 in Khalidiya.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, March–April fighting
On 24 March, most rebel forces retreated from the Bab Sbaa district, under intense shelling, as the military moved in and a number of civilians were also attempting to leave the neighborhood. However, activists reported the neighbourhood was still under bombardment of heavy shelling as of 26 March. Still, an activist stated that the FSA presence in the district was small and they were not in a position to do anything. Another activist also later confirmed the capture of the district.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, March–April fighting
On 2 April, about 40 FSA members captured the National Hospital in Juret al-Shayah district. They found 78 corpses stacked in a refrigerator.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, March–April fighting
In renewed fighting on 8 April, mortars were described as falling "like rain" on the opposition-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh, according to an activist. A makeshift hospital was allegedly stacked with 40 bodies which the opposition were desperately trying to keep cool with fans. According to the activist, they may have to be buried "in public gardens" due to a lack of other feasible options.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Mid-April
Since 14 April 2012, a nationwide cease-fire came in effect, though separate clashes continued in several friction points.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Mid-April
On 14 April, into the morning major shelling happened in the districts of Juret al-Shayah and al-Qarabis that violated the Kofi Annan truce implemented on 14 April.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Mid-April
On 15 April, the Syrian Army was reported to be shelling the neighborhood of al-Waer from the nearby military academy. SANA also reported that terrorists killed 12 civilians in the Alawite, pro-government, neighborhood of al-Zahra in what seemed like an FSA attack on the neighborhood.


2012 Homs offensive, The operation, Mid-April
On 16 April, heavy shelling was coming from three sides into al-Khalidiya. The government also stormed al-Bayada and took control of half of it. They were also trying to storm Juret al-Shayah and al-Qarabis, but were being repelled by the FSA.


2012 Homs offensive, Aftermath (summer 2013)
On 27 July 2013, the Syrian Army took control of the Khalid Ibn Al-Walid Mosque located in Khalidyeh, one of the two last rebel stronghold in Homs. The quarter of Khalidyeh was now in the hand of the government forces at 60%.


2012 Homs offensive, Aftermath (summer 2013)
After the Battle of al-Qusayr (2013), the government launched an offensive against Homs. By the end of July it was reported that at least most of Homs was in government hands. Though state television said that the government was in control of the strategic enclave, some opposition fighters said they were still fighting from pockets of the city. One unnamed FSA Islamist brigade showed videos of its fighters without ammunition but strapped with suicide vests as their only remaining weapons. Other sources indicated that it was a matter of time that the government took control of the city if already had not done so.


2012 Homs offensive, Deaths
The number of deaths during the artillery strikes and subsequent clashes has varied widely, with the lowest estimate for the first day of the bombardment being 181, while the highest was 416, which was later revised down.


2012 Homs offensive, Deaths
While opposition sources have claimed that most of those killed were civilians, government sources stated that out of the 500 reportedly killed by 13 February, most were either insurgents or government troops.


2012 Homs offensive, Deaths
Journalist Marie Colvin in her last report before her death, said that due to the lack of identified military targets, many civilian buildings were damaged. According to her report, the casualties she had seen were about 80% civilians and the rest were FSA fighters.


2012 Homs offensive, Deaths, Day-by-day
Note: No precise casualty counts have been confirmed by any independent agencies


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
The Syrian Interior Ministry stated that in criminal groups escalated their aggressions and criminal acts "perpetrating heinous crimes that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, booby-trapping private buildings, kidnapping and looting private and public properties". A statement by the Ministry explained that "the competent authorities practiced the utmost self-restraint and gave terrorists a number of opportunities to return to the road of right.. but they refused and escalated their terror instigated by foreign sides.. all of this pushed the authorities to intervene and deal with them to restore security and stability to Homs".


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
Abu Rami Alhomsy of the Syrian Revolutionary General Commission claimed the shelling in lasted more than three hours. "It was a normal day for a demonstration but last night they started shelling this neighbourhood. We have many injuries. Many women and children have been killed and injured. I am hiding in the street with many people around me. They are shooting into here from an outside area." The Syrian government denied that the shelling occurred and that it was a fabrication by opposition groups to try to influence a UNSC resolution that sought to condemn the Syrian government the same day. It also accused the armed groups in Homs of killing soldiers and civilians.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
Many news sources, and the governments of Turkey and France, have described the attack as a "massacre". In response, protesters attacked Syrian embassies in a number of cities worldwide. The United Nations Security Council voted on an Arab League proposal to resolve problems in Syria following these events. China and Russia vetoed the resolution. EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton has stated: "I am appalled by the reports of the brutal attacks by the Syrian armed forces in Homs. I condemn in the strongest terms these acts perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilians The international community must speak with one voice, demanding an end to the bloodshed and urging Assad to step aside and allow a democratic transition."


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, says he has received "grisly reports" that Syrian government forces are arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in Homs after opposition fighters in the city retreated.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
I am appalled by the Syrian government's wilful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city. The failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have fuelled the Syrian government's readiness to massacre its own people in an effort to crush dissent."


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
Tunisia said it would expel the Syrian ambassador in response to what it called a "bloody massacre" and announced it no longer recognises the ruling government.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE agreed to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, and expel the Syrian ambassadors to their respective countries, in protest at the Syrian governments crackdown, particularly in Homs. Germany, Spain, Belgium and France also announced the withdrawal of ambassadors from Syria. The Netherlands also recalled its ambassador. The United Kingdom followed these countries and also recalled their ambassador.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
In Libya, protesters took over the Syrian embassy and the official National Transitional Council handed control of the embassy to the opposition or "revolutionaries". Syrians residing in Libya protested outside the country's Russian embassy in Tripoli, eventually hoisting a Syrian opposition flag. Libyans and Syrians also rallied outside the Chinese embassy in Libya, "to denounce China’s decision to veto a UN resolution that would seek to end the violence and bloodshed in Syria." Libya also expelled the ambassador for the al-Assad government; the ambassador's car was attacked by unarmed Syrian protesters as he fled Tripoli.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
This came after the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron accused the government of butchering its own people. This is while 10 civilians were said to have been executed outside a shop in Bab Amr. Speaking in Brussels, he said:


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
The French President (at the time) Nicolas Sarkozy accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of seeking to "wipe Homs from the map", comparing his campaign to the Libyan government's attacks on the city of Benghazi. "Bashar al-Assad is lying in a shameful way, he wants to wipe Homs from the map like (former Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi wanted to wipe Benghazi from the map," Sarkozy said. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that the government had "broken all the limits of barbarism. And when I see the Syrian president paraded around this voting station in Damascus for this phony referendum, it makes you deeply indignant." Juppe said he felt "immensely frustrated" at difficulties in obtaining security guarantees to enable wounded civilians and Western journalists to be evacuated from Homs.


2012 Homs offensive, Reactions to 2012 incident
In other countries, Syrian expatriates protested against the attack. Syrian embassies in Egypt and Germany were attacked, with protesters setting fire to part of the embassy and at least 30 people storming the premises, respectively. There was more than 150 protesters chanting outside the London embassy at 3:00. Around 50 mostly Syrian protesters broke into their country's embassy in Greece on that morning, smashing windows and painting anti-government slogans on the walls, a police source told the AFP. Twelve Syrians and an Iraqi were arrested afterwards. In Kuwait, witnesses said demonstrators stormed the Syrian embassy compound breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition. The Syrian Embassy in Australia was also damaged and ransacked. There were also protests outside the Syrian embassy in the United States.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
The 2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first race of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. It was held on March 25, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida on the city's temporary street course, and was won by Hélio Castroneves.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Report, Background
This race was the first race since Dan Wheldon was killed in an accident, five month earlier during the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October 2011. It was also the first race run with the new ICONIC chassis by Dallara, which Wheldon was helping to develop and was named the "DW12" in his honor. This race also marked the first time since the end of the 2005 season that Honda wouldn't be IndyCar's exclusive engine supplier. Chevrolet re-entered Indy racing for the first time since that season and Lotus was the third supplier.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Report, Qualifying
For the third consecutive year, Will Power took the pole position for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a circuit-qualifying record of 1:01.3721. Alongside of Power, Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe will start in row one, in second position. The second row will be occupied Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe, both of Andretti Autosport.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Report, Race
The 2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg started with pole sitter Will Power leading the field for the majority of the first few laps, with Ryan Briscoe, who qualified second, trailing behind him. Briscoe would eventually take the lead after Power pitted, in for fuel strategy. However, the pit stop by Power would eventually take him out of contention for the race, as he would not near the top spot for the remaining laps.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Report, Race
While Briscoe did hold the top position for eight laps, it was Scott Dixon, who was consistently around the top and eventually would inherit the lead on lap 20. Throughout the entirety of the race, Lotus Cars such as rookie Katherine Legge and Simona de Silvestro face mechanical problems, as Lotus finished third between the manufactures, behind Chevrolet and Honda. During the mid-portion of the race, drivers such as Takuma Sato, defending series champion Dario Franchitti and J.R. Hildebrand would all hold a lead in the race.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Report, Race
However, coming down to the end, it would be Hélio Castroneves and Dixon battling for the lead in the race and the victory. After a series of pit stops on lap 72, Castroneves would make a bold pass on Dixon, giving him position behind, then leader Hildebrand. This position would eventually allow him to inherit the lead of the race, as Castroneves would lead the final 26 laps, giving him the victory, his first victory since the 2010 season.


2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Classification, Race Results
Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.


2012 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
The  Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio was the twelfth round of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. It took place on Sunday, August 5, 2012. The race was contested over 85 laps at the 2.258-mile (3.634 km) permanent road course at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, United States.


2012 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
The race was won by New Zealand racer Scott Dixon racing for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon finished 3.4 seconds ahead of Australian driver Will Power driving for Team Penske with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud finishing third for Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports. It was Dixon's second win for the year and Pagenaud's third top three finish for the year. More significant, Power's second place compared to the results for Ryan Hunter-Reay and Power's teammate Hélio Castroneves, put Power back into the lead of the championship.


2012 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Classification, Race results
Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.


2012 Honda Indy Toronto
The  2012 Honda Indy Toronto was the tenth round of the 2012 IndyCar Series season. It took place on Sunday, July 8, 2012. The race was contested over 85 laps at the 1.755-mile (2.824 km) street course at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport won the race, his third consecutive win of the season, which also gave him the series' points lead.


2012 Honda Indy Toronto
With his victory, Hunter-Reay became the first American driver to win three races in a row since A. J. Allmendinger in 2006, and the first American to lead the driver's points championship since Sam Hornish, Jr., also in 2006. Toronto was Dario Franchitti fourth pole position of the year, but he had bad luck in one of his pitstops when he stopped too far from the refuelling device and then later a collision with Ryan Briscoe, he finished the race in 17th position.


2012 Honda Indy Toronto, Classification, Race results
Points include 1 point for pole position and 2 points for most laps led.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election
The 2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election was held on 25 March 2012 to select the Chief Executive of Hong Kong (CE), the highest office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), by a 1,193-member Election Committee (EC) to replace the incumbent Chief Executive. Won by the former non-official convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Leung Chun-ying, the election was the most competitive as it was the first election with more than one pro-Beijing candidate since the 1996 election.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election
The incumbent Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who served for the second half of the second term and a full third term was ineligible to run for the re-election as stated in the Basic Law. Leung Chun-ying, who was seen as the underdog, ran a successful campaign against Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang who was seen as the favourite candidate by Beijing officials and business tycoons. The pan-democrats also successfully fielded their own candidate, Democratic Party chairman and Legislative Councillor Albert Ho, who won the primary against another pan-democrat legislator Frederick Fung, former chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) on 8 January 2012.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election
The campaign was marked by scandals, dirty tactics and smears from both Tang's and Leung's sides, notably Henry Tang illegal basement controversy. In the wake of the scandals which damaged Tang's popularity, the election was ultimately won by Leung Chun-ying, who received 689 electoral votes in the Election Committee with the help of the central government's Liaison Office.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism
According to Article 44 of the Basic Law, the Chief Executive must be a Chinese citizen who is a permanent resident of the HKSAR with no right of abode in any foreign country. The individual must be at least 40 years old, and has ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of no less than 20 years. Article 47 further requires that the Chief Executive be a person of integrity, dedicated to his or her duties.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism
The 1,200-member Election Committee in which was elected in the 2011 Election Committee Subsector Elections, which commenced its term of office on 1 February 2012, is composed of 1,044 members elected from 35 subsectors, 60 members nominated by the religious subsector and 96 ex-officio members, who are members of the Legislative Council or Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress. The election committee has no legitimacy in the eyes of the general public, according to Christine Loh.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism
Nominations for the 2012 election opened on 14 February, and closed on 29 February. Each candidacy for Chief Executive must be supported by at least 150 nominations from members of the Election Committee; no EC member may nominate more than one candidate. The election proper takes place by secret ballot, with each EC member having one vote, on 25 March 2012. The successful candidate shall have secured valid votes from more than half the total stipulated number of members, namely 601 votes.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism
If the first round of voting fails to give rise to an outright winner, a second round of voting shall be held the same day after eliminating the lowest-scoring candidate. If a second round still fails to produce an outright winner, the election will be re-run. For this, nominations will reopen, and balloting will take place six weeks later – in this case on 6 May.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Eligibility, affiliation and election mechanism
Under current laws, candidate are not required to disclose their political affiliations; however, section 31 of Chief Executive Election Ordinance (Cap 569) stipulates that a person elected as the Chief Executive must "publicly make a statutory declaration to the effect that he is not a member of any political party".


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Candidates, Withdrawn
Other minor candidates included Kan Kit-hung (簡傑鴻), Yu Wing-yin (余永賢), consultant of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, Wu Sai-chuen (胡世全), a former DAB member and Roger Chan Yuet-tung (陳乙東). None of them was successfully nominated.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events
The non-official convenor of the Executive Council Leung Chun-ying announced his plan to run on 9 September and resigned from his post in the government in mid September 2011. Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang, considered the first choice of Beijing, resigned from government in late September 2011. Rita Fan and Regina Ip also said they were considering running for the post, but dropped out on 15 December. Fan lost a lot of public support and respect by taking six months to consider her candidacy. After much prevarication-induced speculation, Fan announced that she would not participate because her age and health would become concerns into the CE term; and she endorsed Henry Tang instead.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events, Pan-democrats' primary
Civic Party legislator Alan Leong who contested the 2007 Chief Executive election expressed an interest in standing again but later announced that the Civic Party would not join the election. Albert Ho, the chairman of the Democratic Party decided to run for the post on 4 October 2011. Frederick Fung, former chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), also expressed his interest in running for the post, and officially announced his decision to participate in the election on 8 December 2011.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events, Pan-democrats' primary
After winning over 150 seats in the Election Committee subsector elections, the pan-democrats conducted the "Pan-dem Chief Executive Primary Election" to decide on a unified candidate for the pan-democrat camp on 8 January 2012. The organising committee consisted of 7 members, representing the Democratic Party, the Civic Party, the ADPL, the Neo Democrats, the Professional Commons, the Power for Democracy and the Hong Kong Democratic Development Network respectively. The 4 co-organising political parties agreed to nominate the winner of the primary election.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events, Pan-democrats' primary
However, some pan-democratic parties, including the League of Social Democrats, the People Power and the Labour Party, were against the primary election and the "small-circle election" at all. All Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or over were eligible to vote at the 74 polling stations; 33,932 votes were cast. The result combined the public voting and the poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme between 3 and 6 January with equal weights. Albert Ho won with 67.2% in the voting and 54.6% in the poll.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events, Early 2012
After Henry Tang became embroiled in an unauthorised building works scandal in February 2012, the field of potential pro-Beijing candidates once again opened up: New People's Party legislator Regina Ip re-announced her interest in running for the post on 20 February; at the same time, Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) also said he was "seriously considering" running for the post.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Pre-nomination events, Early 2012
In addition to Rita Fan, Financial Secretary John Tsang and Secretary for Development Carrie Lam, businessman Victor Fung and Joseph Yam were touted by pundits as possible candidates. Tsang's final decision not to stand, after ten days of deliberations, was influenced by concerns about the intrusion of party politics into the chief executive race, and the effect of his candidature (and potential success in getting elected) for the DAB in the forthcoming Legislative Council elections in September. Ip failed to receive enough nominations before the deadline and thus did not qualify to stand for the election.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
The nomination period ran from 14 to 29 February 2012, which Albert Ho was the first declared candidate to submit his nomination, having secured 184 votes (including his own) from Election Committee members. He failed to capture 21 of the known pan-democrat votes.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Henry Tang was the second to submit his nomination; he did so earlier than planned on 20 February after having secured 379 nominations, days after his implication in an illegal structure scandal and on the day the press published allegations of yet another of his extra-marital liaisons.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Tang's nominees included most of the major local property magnates: Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development, New World Development's Henry Cheng and Sun Hung Kai Properties' Raymond and Thomas Kwok, Chinese Estates Holdings chairman Joseph Lau, Robert Ng of Sino Group, Hopewell Holdings chairman Gordon Wu; Tang is also endorsed by Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat and film director Stephen Chow.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Tang's early nomination was seen by some pundits as a strategic move to lock in his gains early; others suggest that it was a pre-emptive move ahead of pronouncements from Beijing.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
"Inevitably, [Tang's] refusal to quit has put Beijing in a difficult position as signs of unwavering support will be taken as evidence that the election has a pre-determined winner. Worse, it risks provoking the public further and triggering a crisis if he is allowed to govern with his integrity in shreds."


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
According to an analysis by the South China Morning Post, support for Tang amongst 12 major property conglomerates accounting for at least 64 seats on the Election Committee was by no means unequivocal: they pledged 38 of these votes to Tang. Three had given more than half of their nominations to Tang, while four gave only half; Wharf Holdings and Swire gave only their chairmen's votes to Tang.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Leung Chun-ying submitted his candidature on 23 February; he received 293 nominations. Leung obtained nominations from 57 of the 60 representatives from the agriculture and fisheries sub-sector, 29 nominations from the labour sub-sector, 25 from the engineering, architectural, surveying and planning sub-sectors, and 12 from the finance and financial services sub-sectors. He also secured 20 nominations from Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and about 30 from members of the DAB.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Heavyweights who support Leung included former executive councillor Arthur Li, former chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties Walter Kwok, Shui on Group chairman Vincent Lo and former Broadcasting Authority chairman Daniel Fung. Leung admitted that it was difficult securing the prerequisite 150 votes to enter the race; The Standard cited a source saying that Leung had secured those nominations through efforts of officials of the Central Government Liaison office (CLO).


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Nominations
Pundits reckoned that Tang lost around 100 votes to Leung as a result of Tang's scandals. As Tang enjoyed an advantage over Leung of EC members belonging to the commercial and property development sectors, Leung pledged to serve "all the seven million people in Hong Kong." The DAB and a number of others hinted that they were holding back on their nominations to allow Jasper Tsang to enter the fray should he so wish.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
Tang has a reputation of being lazy and unintelligent; Leung is a surveyor with business acumen but who seems to appear cold and brutal. Hence, the Chief Executive election was dubbed as a contest between "the wolf" (referring to Leung) and "the pig" (referring to Tang). Tang's status as the front-runner among those that mattered stems from the fact Tang's father, who originates from Jiangsu, not Guangdong province, is closely connected to a faction close to Jiang Zemin.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
In early 2012, it emerged that support for Tang may have been played up by people close to Liao Hui, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office from 1997 to 2000, to the detriment of Leung, who is an equally acceptable candidate to top leaders. Leung's patriotism and his contributions to Hong Kong – including his involvement in the drafting Hong Kong's Basic Law – are noted, although he remains distrusted by business magnates.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
Albert Ho, leader of the Democratic Party, is not expected to receive support of any members of the Election Committee apart from those who were popularly elected, and is thus a token candidate in the "small-circle election". Tsang Yok-sing's exit from the forefront on 27 February reaffirmed the two-horse race that Beijing had endorsed.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
Top Chinese leaders have stipulated that the next CE would have to be patriotic in the eyes of both Beijing and Hong Kong, have governing and management skills, and command wide public acceptance. Li Jianguo, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, informed local NPC deputies in January 2012 that Leung and Tang were both "acceptable" to Beijing as chief executive candidates, adding that he hoped to see a fair fight in the race. Speaking at a press conference after the close of the fifth plenary session of the 11th National People's Congress, premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the government's position.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
"I believe that as long as the principle of openness, justice and fairness is observed and relevant legal procedures are complied with, Hong Kong will elect a chief executive who enjoys the support of the vast majority of Hong Kong people"Wen Jiabao, 14 March 2012


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, "Two-horse race"
Analysts said that the fight between the two candidates has upset the political consensus Beijing has sought to cultivate, and caused the leaders embarrassment. Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation said:“Beijing felt it has lost face because the two people they have groomed for so long have failed to stand up to the test.” Pundit Michael DeGolyer observed that reformists strongly back Leung, and says the contest has implications for the balance of power between reformist vs conservatives in the rest of China.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election debate and forum, Election debate
A televised election debate was jointly organised by 11 mass media organisations at RTHK's Broadcasting House in Kowloon Tong on 16 March 2012. 150 guests were randomly invited by the University of Hong Kong and the Lingnan University. During the 2-hour debate, the candidates answered questions raised by the mass media organisations and randomly drawn guest audience, and were allowed to raise questions to other candidates. The hosts were Joseph Tse Chi-fung of RTHK and Hui Fong-fai of TVB.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election debate and forum, Election debate
Afterwards, public concern was raised about Henry Tang's accusations during the debate that Leung had proposed suppressing freedom of speech by shortening the licence renewal term for Commercial Radio in 2003; Tang also alleged that Leung had said in a "top-level meeting" that the government would have to deploy the anti-riot police and use tear gas to handle protests after the massive peaceful demonstration on 1 July 2003 opposing the legislation of Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23. Leung denied both claims immediately, adding that the only "top-level meeting" he had attended was the Executive Council. Arthur Li Kwok-cheung stated that he had not heard Leung making such remarks during ExCo meetings.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election debate and forum, Election debate
Albert Ho used the platform to demand Tang and Leung to state their positions on universal suffrage, in particular the abolition of functional constituencies in the Legislative Council, and on vindication of the Tiananmen protests of 1989. However, neither Tang nor Leung responded directly.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election debate and forum, Election forum
A televised election forum was held at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre on 19 March 2012. Unlike the debate, the candidates were not allowed to raise questions to each other and no guests from the public were invited. They answered questions raised by a few randomly selected election committee members as well as those previously collected from the public. The host was Ng Ming-lam, who also hosted the debate on political reform between Donald Tsang and Audrey Eu in 2010.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Henry Tang infidelity
In October 2011 affairs were publicised involving Henry Tang and Shirley Yuen, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce CEO and his former administrative assistant, and Elizabeth Chan, Tang's personal assistant in the 1990s; both denied liaisons with him. His wife said in statement to the media that there had been difficult times in their relationship and that he has faults, but that she also appreciated his strengths. According to one media report, the revelations caused Beijing to drop their opposition to Leung standing as a candidate as a safeguard against more scandals involving Tang.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Indecision
In mid October 2011 there were complaints that the Pro-Beijing candidates had not officially declared to run for Chief Executive. Pan-democrat Emily Lau specifically said Leung Chun-ying and Henry Tang were inviting 10,000 people out to wine and dine on public expenses, and that this was unfair and irresponsible when neither appeared to want to run for chief executive. Rita Fan also flip flopped multiple times. While she wanted to run when she was the most popular, when Tang showed his intention to run, she stepped back and said Tang was an acceptable candidate. However, when the extramarital affair of Henry Tang was exposed, Fan withdrew her support for him.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Baptist University poll scandal
On 14 January 2012 Zhao Xinshu, dean of Hong Kong Baptist University School of Communication, prematurely presented a survey result showing candidate Leung Chun-ying with only a small lead (6.5% points) over Henry Tang out 836 people surveyed. By the time the survey was completed with the 1000 sample, Leung led Tang by an 8.9% point margin. This caused speculations whether the poll was rigged. On 19 January Henry Tang admitted his communications advisor Lucy Chan Wai-yee had made a call to the Baptist University prior to the announcement of the unfinished result, but denied that he interfered with the poll.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Baptist University poll scandal
Zhao Xinshu took on the blame, and explained that the early announcement was to avoid losing media coverage to the Republic of China presidential election. The school denied having any political stance. Zhao resigned from the school dean position, but retained his teaching post. School staff, students and alumni were dissatisfied with the short investigation, which lasted only 10 days involving 16 internal school members. Zhao may face further investigation by the ICAC.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Leung Chun-ying's conflict of interest allegations
In an exclusive in early 2012, East Week magazine said Leung was one of 10 judges in the 2001 concept planning competition for the West Kowloon Cultural District despite his company acting as a consultant for one of the competitors. Leung had declared on 25 February 2002, that he was in no way interested in the competition, whether in a personal or professional capacity.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Leung Chun-ying's conflict of interest allegations
Upon questioning following the press report, he reiterated: "There was no business relationship, or conflict of interest. I have already reported the case to the jury committee chairman and government bodies ... One quantity surveyor under a particular professional team asked our company about related comments and information on land prices in West Kowloon. But we did not take any money in return." The contestant in question, Malaysian company LWK & Partners, named DTZ Holdings – Leung's company – as a "consultant" in its competition entry. Leung said that he immediately questioned his staff upon learning about it, and had in fact written an explanatory letter to the jury upon being aware.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Leung Chun-ying's conflict of interest allegations
As the row continued, the government generated further controversy on 8 February when it issued two statements, one explaining the failure of candidate Leung to declare a possible conflict of interest in the West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan Competition, and other that cleared Henry Tang Ying-yen of any conflict of interest relating to his decision to lower wine duties when he was financial secretary. A government spokesman insisted it was impartial in issuing the two statements.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Leung Chun-ying's conflict of interest allegations
However, Asia Sentinel suggested the selective leak of such allegations by the government who then refused to make public all the documents relating to the issue as requested by Leung himself was a smear originating from the Tang camp. Leung said he welcomed full disclosure of all the facts and documents relating to his involvement in the contest, including "minutes of judges' panel meetings." The government said that had written to seek consent from both Leung Chun-ying and the contestant's architects TR Hamzah & Yeang to release information concerning their respective roles in the West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
"As a man, one needs to have shoulders and as a public officer, one needs to have backbone," – Henry Tang, 13 February 2012 (statement in response to press alleged illegal structures at his properties)


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
Following media allegations of illegal structures at the Kowloon Tong residence of the leading contender, Tang admitted on 13 February that there was an unauthorised structure at his home at No 5A York Road in the form of a canopy above the garage. He also said that there was already an underground garage at his family's adjacent property (7 York Road) at the time of purchase, which had since been deepened "for storage". He said it was not used as a wine cellar.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
On 15 February, Chinese-language newspaper Sharp Daily published a set of floor plans purporting to be of the 2,400-square-foot illegal basement at one of Tang's properties comprising a store room, fitness room, changing room, cinema and wine-tasting room dating from 2003. Tang said the drawing "does not match. [ The basement] is basically used for storage." The Buildings Department said that the property was inspected on 22 January 2007, and no unauthorised structures were found.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
Experts believe that the secret basement standing larger than the footprint of the house was no afterthought: engineers have largely discounted the possibility of building such a large underground structure after completion of the main house. The filed building plan showed foundation piles were driven five metres deep, enough space to harbour at least one storey underground. A media and political circus gathered in York Road as inspectors made a site visit on 16 February: media hired building cranes to gain vantage over the property; Leung Kwok Hung led a protest outside Tang's residence.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
In a press conference, Tang's wife took responsibility for the illegal basement facility. Tang refused media requests to tour the house. He said: "An illegal structure is an illegal structure. It doesn't matter what the facilities inside are." Tang was widely criticised for hiding behind his wife, and was then under pressure to quit the race.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Illegal structures at Henry Tang's home
In a poll conducted on 16 and 17 February by the University of Hong Kong on behalf of the South China Morning Post, 51.3% of those polled said Tang should withdraw. Opposition to Tang was 23.5 percentage points higher one week later. Commentators observed that Tang's self-inflicted damage has embarrassed Beijing and made it lose control of the election process.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Accusation of "black gold politics"
Leung Chun-ying was suspected of being involved with "black gold politics" after the March 2012 issue of East Week reported that his supporter, Lew Mon-hung (Chinese: 劉夢熊), and his campaign officers met with Rural committee members and a Triad member over a dinner at Lau Fau Shan. Attendees from different camps gave different accounts, especially of the appearance of Kwok Wing-hung, nicknamed "Shanghai Boy", who has known associations with Wo Shing Wo. Denying any personal connections with Leung, however, Kwok claimed he met Henry Tang in Tokyo, Japan in 2002 and held a few photos of him. Tang then lodged a complaint to the police, stating that he felt threatened by Kwok's comments. The case is under ICAC and police investigation.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Alleged protocol breach
Henry Tang's claims during the televised debate on 16 March about what was said during "high-level meetings" set off a storm. During later interviews, he elaborated on the situations where the remarks attributed to Leung Chun-ying were heard. Tang said that the disclosures were made because of the public's right to know, but that the disclosures were impromptu as he was angered by Leung's mention of the sofa in Tang's office allegedly used in Tang's extra-marital affairs.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Alleged protocol breach
Five former Exco members stated that they had not heard, or did not remember hearing Leung making such remarks during ExCo meetings. Tang was widely criticised, by pro-Beijing figures, for breaching the confidentiality rule: Chairman of the DAB, Tam Yiu-chung, said no-one had the right to breach confidentiality rule of ExeCo, for whatever reason. Regina Ip, responsible for the legislation of Article 23, questioned the accuracy and appropriateness of Tang's disclosures, saying that she had "no recollection" that such a comment was made. She also criticised Tang for breaching the confidentiality rule, even should his claim be true.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Alleged protocol breach
Former Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong also said Tang should be condemned but "Tang [ must] justify the breach based on the principle of public interest" Senior politician and former Secretary of Justice Elsie Leung rebuked Tang, saying: "The CE election should be conducted in a fair, open and just manner ... If the rule is not properly observed and protected, no one will be willing to join the government or say anything during internal meetings in future." Leung added that "running for the CE is not an excuse to breach this important rule.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Alleged protocol breach
James Tien, whose resignation from the ExCo forced the government to withdraw the Article 23 bill, said that the confidentiality rule should not be overridden by public interest, otherwise "the government should just make all Exco meetings public". Pan-democrat politicians urged the government to go public on the facts because the public had the right to know what went on.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Alleged protocol breach
In response to pressure to clarify the principle of confidentiality, the Executive Council issued a statement that any breach of its confidentiality principle may result in punitive and "legal action" against any offender. The statement, unanimously endorsed by all Exco members, said: "[the principle] must be sternly upheld and respected, and should not be violated." The South China Morning Post cites a reliable source that Beijing was "surprised and disappointed" by Tang's violation of a basic principle, and that his chances were over from that moment.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of Leung Chun-ying's Communist Party membership
During the Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2012, persistent rumours resurfaced of Leung's undeclared membership of the Communist Party of China (CCP). Leung constantly dismissed such claims as ungrounded.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of Leung Chun-ying's Communist Party membership
In March 2012, former underground communist Florence Leung (梁慕嫻), launched her memoir My Time in Hong Kong's Underground Communist Party (我與香港地下黨), in which she pointed out Leung Chun-ying had to have been an underground communist in 1985 in order for him to have become the Secretary General of the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee, according to party protocol. She also cited Leung's vague remarks about the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre as a clue to his membership. According to the South China Morning Post, Leung's campaign office said Leung was "not a Chinese Communist Party member and had never requested or been invited to join the party." The pro-Beijing Ta Kung Pao dedicated its entire front page of 24 March to attacking the author and her allegations.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of interference in political reporting
Local press has been avidly reporting on efforts of the central government's Liaison Office to rally support behind Leung, but said reports have been creating discomfort for officials. Albert Ho relayed complaints he has received about Liaison Office attempts to intimidate editors and media bosses. Media widely reported that Richard Li had received calls from CLO propaganda chief Hao Tiechuan (Chinese: 郝鐵川) dissatisfied at the reporting at his Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ). Ho said the CLO's actions were creating "an atmosphere of terror" in the territory.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of interference in political reporting
The Hong Kong Journalists Association, which noted that the HKEJ had received complaints about its coverage from central government's liaison office, and condemned the "open violation" of the one-country two-systems principle. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has confirmed these allegations and expressed its concern.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of interference in political reporting
The IFJ cites an anonymous senior journalist for a Hong Kong newspaper saying that the Liaison Office had called several times "during the last two weeks" criticising the newspaper for alleging that the CLO had attempted to influence EC members; One publisher who is member of the EC also reportedly received calls from the Liaison Office with coded references to the preferred candidate: in line with the shift in reported preference from Tang to Leung, he said that initial emphasis was on 'experience' and 'temperament', but later switched to 'popularity'.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of interference in political reporting
Local media reported that pundit Johnny Lau, who wrote a critique of both Tang and Leung for the Sing Pao Daily News, complained that the journal turned his article into one favouring Leung. Lau said that his intended piece was entitled "Neither Tang nor Leung is worthy of support". In the piece, he opined that "supporting either party would not be conducive to the situation", but the published version read: "If there is really a need to make a choice, then, let's choose Mr Leung Chun-ying."


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Scandals and controversies, Allegations of interference in political reporting
Lau alleges that his conclusion was similarly distorted: "neither Mr Tang nor Mr Leung is worthy of support. They do not deserve sympathy either" was changed to read: "Mr Tang is not worthy of support. Nor does he deserve sympathy." Ngai Kai-kwong, editor-in-chief of Sing Pao said: "the editing might have been too carelessly done." He said the paper had neither exercised censorship, nor had come under pressure from the central government's liaison office.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Polling, Mock polls
The Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong set up a mock "civic referendum" for 23 March dubbed 'PopVote 3.23' funded by public donations. The voting platforms were 15 physical polling stations, and online voting by Internet and smartphone, and was open from 00:01 to 20:00 on 23 March 2012. Organisers expected a participation of 50,000 citizens. POP also set up polls for students at 155 schools in conjunction with the Boys and Girls Association of Hong Kong.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Polling, Mock polls
The servers for the on-line voting at popvote.hk were receiving in excess of a million hits each second since several days before polling began. As only IP numbers from abroad were allowed access, organisers believe it was "systematic hacking" from within Hong Kong, seeking to prevent people from voting. Voting at physical polling stations were forced to downgrade to paper methods. Organisers advised citizens to go to the physical polling stations. Civic Party leader Audrey Eu blamed the attacks on "powerful interests who want to prevent others expressing their views".


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Polling, Mock polls
Pollster Robert Chung said 45,000 people were still able to vote despite the disruption. It was announced that voting times were being extended, with 17 polling stations across the territory opening again on the day before the real poll until 16:00. Two HK males, aged 17 and 28, were detained by the police suspected of hacking the election.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Polling, Mock polls
There were 222,990 votes cast: there were 85,154 internet, 71,831 Smartphone and 66,005 physical voters over the two-day polling period. The poll results were as follows.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
The PRC leadership has repeatedly outwardly expressed their hope to see "a candidate with strong public support elected smoothly." During the 11th National People's Congress, media interpreted top leaders' support for Leung when Xi Jinping shook hands with Leung supporters, seated in the second row, ahead of Tang supporters seated in the first row. Premier Wen Jiabao's comments were taken by some to indicate a preference for Leung, who was more popular according to opinion polls, although other pundits believed those remarks were neutral.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
In the final week before the election Beijing, fearing a deadlock, had thrown its support behind Leung. The South China Morning Post cites a source that central government had informed heads of three Beijing-loyalist newspapers in Hong Kong – Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao and Commercial Daily – in mid March that Leung had won the blessing of the central government. The SCMP noted that the journals, which had scrupulously given both candidates equal treatment up to that point, subtly shifted prominence to Leung in their coverage.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
The SCMP cites other sources that the central government had mobilised to lobby undecided Election Committee members, or those who nominated Tang, to support Leung. More than 40 EC members who had nominated Tang confirmed that they had been approached by the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong to switch their support to Leung. Other EC members had been summoned to Shenzhen to meet with a state leader, identified as politburo member Liu Yandong, the highest-ranking female politician in the PRC.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
Among the 1200 EC members, there have been temptation to cast a blank vote to force a new round of campaign. The front page of the Ta Kung Pao on 22 March stated that casting a null vote was "not an option", Its editorial extolled the virtues of both candidates, whilst stating that a blank vote would be no different from the politicking of "the [democratic] opposition". The same day, Oriental Daily News reported that Tang's campaign had all but imploded amidst a flurry of activity by political heavyweights and kingmakers.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
Liaison Office deputy head Li Guikang (黎桂康) was reported to have met the representatives of the five leading business organisations for one and a half hours; they did not reveal the content of their discussions. Andrew Leung and Jeffrey Lam, two people considered to be the 'inner core' of the Tang camp, were "in detention" for one more hour. Anson Chan questioned whether "one country, two systems" was being upheld, since the central government liaison office was "very busy getting everybody to put the vote for CY". Albert Ho suggested that many EC members were feeling the pressure from the Liaison Office, and feared repercussions for not voting for Leung. He also said that press reports of the Liaison Office's whipping was subject of Liaison Office complaints to editors and media bosses.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
The Liberal Party declared, with two days to go, that ideologically it was unanimously opposed to Leung, and that its EC members would be allowed to vote freely. Although it had originally nominated Tang, many members could not bring themselves to vote for Tang any more. Chairman Miriam Lau and Selina Chow defended their null vote as "the responsible decision" as they could not with all conscience vote for either Tang or Leung; their internal poll of 1,900 people showed 30 percent would cast blank votes.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Tea leaves, central government and voting intentions
The pan-democrats reached a consensus that they would not support either of the pro-Beijing candidates. They would either vote for Albert Ho, cast a null vote, or abstain from the vote. And should the election go to a second round, pan-democrat EC members would leave the vote en masse in protest against the "small-circle election". The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions announced that its block of 60 votes would go to Leung. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong also suggested its 147 electors vote for Leung.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Election day
A protest occurred on 24 March at Central involving about 100 people complaining about the small circle election committee representing all of the citizens. When EC members arrived to cast their votes on the morning of 25 March, they were greeted by protesters outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue of the election.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Election, Election day
During the election 1,132 votes were cast, CY Leung received 689; Henry Tang received 285, and Albert Ho received 76. Thus, Leung was declared duly elected by the Returning Officer. There were 82 papers declared invalid for various reasons: seventy-five were blank, four papers were marked for both Leung and Tang; One was marked for all three. After the election result was endorsed by the Central Government of the PRC on 28 March, Leung took office on 1 July, for a term of five years.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Aftermath, Protests
After the election results were announced, some of the 2,000 protesters demonstrating against the "small-circle election" attempted to storm and clashed with the police; pepper spray was used. Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, who was among the protesters sprayed, said "What I [fear] is white terror, to be upheld by Leung soon after he takes office. People should be aware of that and fight him to the end."


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Aftermath, Protests
The first big protest after Leung's election took place the next Sunday, in which 15,000 people marched from Central to Sai Wan, where the Central Government Liaison Office (CLO) is located. The Civil Human Rights Front demanded that the CLO stop its political interference in Hong Kong and that Leung Chun-ying should "step down". Commentators pointed out that the unusually large scale of the protest before Leung actually took office displayed public anger at the CLO interfering in Hong Kong elections and fear for the office being the de facto ruler of Hong Kong.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Aftermath, Election petition
Three months after the election, candidate Albert Ho stated that he would file an election petition, based on the false statements made by Leung during the election period. On the televised election debate, Leung challenged the credibility of Tang, stating that he did not have any illegal constructions in his house; nevertheless, an illegal basement was discovered by a local press at Leung's house in June. Although Leung apologised and restated his negligence, his claim was widely doubted as he was a professional surveyor.


2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Aftermath, Election petition
An election petition should be filed within 7 days of the election, but Ho intended to apply for an extension of the petition period. Along with an election petition, complaints were filed to the ICAC and a motion of no confidence against the CE-elect would also be moved in the LegCo.


2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
The 2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes was the eighteenth edition of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, took place at Kowloon Cricket Club, Hong Kong. Eight teams competing in the tournament which lasted over two days from 27 to 28 October 2012. The tournament also featured China cricket team playing an exhibition match with a Hong Kong development team. The previous tournament was won by Pakistan who defeated England in the final.


2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations
All standard laws of the game as laid down by the MCC applied with the following significant differences:


2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, General
Games are played between two teams of six players, and consist of five overs of six balls, with the exception of the final which consists of five overs of eight balls. Each member of the fielding side, with the exception of the wicket-keeper shall bowl one over. Wides and no-balls count as two runs to the batting side, plus an extra ball.


2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, Last man stands
If five wickets fall (not including batsmen retiring not out) before the allocated overs have been completed, the remaining batsman continues, with the last batsman out remaining as a runner. The not out batsman shall always face strike, and shall be declared out if his partner is declared out.


2012 Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, Rules and regulations, Batsman retire
A batsman must retire not out on reaching 31 runs, but not before. He may complete all runs scored on the ball on which he reaches his 31, and retire immediately after. If one of the last pair of batsmen is out, any remaining not out batsman may resume his innings. In the case where there is more than one, they must return in the order they retired.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens
The 2012 Hong Kong Sevens was the 37th edition of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament and the sixth tournament of the 2011–12 IRB Sevens World Series. The host stadium was the Hong Kong Stadium.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens
Fiji won the title by defeating New Zealand 35–28 in the final.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Format
The teams were divided into pools of four teams, who played a round-robin within the pool. Points were awarded in each pool on a different scale from that used in most rugby tournaments: 3 for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Format
However, new for 2012 was what was described by organisers as two separate 12-team competitions, called Competition 1 and Competition 2. Competition 1 contained the 12 core teams of the IRB Sevens circuit, who play in every event of the IRB Sevens circuit, in pools A, B and C.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Format
Competition 2 contained 12 teams who had qualified through their performance in regional tournaments, in pools D, E and F. Four of these teams were from Asia; three from Europe; two from North America & Caribbean; one from Oceania; one from South America; and one from Africa. This competition also doubled as a qualifying tournament for the 2012–13 IRB Sevens circuit, where the two Qualifier (Shield) finalists and the winner of the 3rd/4th place playoff earned automatic participation in all events of the 2012–13 season. This resulted from the IRB's decision to increase the number of core teams to 15, effective in 2012–13.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Format
Eight teams from Pools A, B and C, being the winners and runner-up from each pool, plus the best two 3rd placers, qualified for the Cup Quarter Finals. The losers of these Quarter Finals competed in the Plate Semifinals. The remaining four teams competed in the Bowl Semifinals.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Format
Similarly, eight teams from Pools D, E and F qualified for the Qualifier (Shield) playoffs. The remaining four teams played in ranking matches.


2012 Hong Kong Sevens, Merchandising
For this tournament, sportswear brand Kukri Sports teamed up with Hong Kong lifestyle retail store G.O.D. to produce merchandising. The products, carried the specially designed "Kukri x G.O.D." logo, which features elements of the original Hong Kong flag, and ranges from polos, traditional Chinese jackets, boxers, Cheongsam-inspired ladies polo, messenger and tote bags. A percentage of sales went to the Foodlink Foundation, supported by both companies.


2012 Hong Kong Super Series
The 2012 Hong Kong Super Series is a top level badminton competition held from November 20, 2012, to November 25, 2012, in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is the twelfth BWF Super Series competition on the 2012 BWF Super Series schedule. The total purse for the event was $350,000.


2012 Hong Kong Women League FA Cup
2012 Hong Kong Women League FA Cup is the 1st edition of the newly structured Women League FA Cup. It is a knockout competition for all the teams of the 2012–13 Hong Kong Women League.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 9 September 2012 for the 5th Legislative Council (LegCo) since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The election was for the new total of 70 seats in LegCo, ten more than previously, with 35 members elected in geographical constituencies through direct elections, and 35 members in functional constituencies. Under new arrangements agreed in a contentious LegCo vote in 2010, five District Council (Second) functional constituency seats each represent all 18 District Councils of Hong Kong voted for by all resident voters in Hong Kong (who did not have a vote in any other functional constituency), effectively increasing the number of seats elected with universal suffrage to 40.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The pro-Beijing camp scored a major success, maintaining its dominance in the functional constituencies and winning 17 of the 35, nearly half, of the geographical constituency seats, which were considered to be the stronghold of the pan-democracy camp. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the flagship Beijing-loyalist party, won 13 seats in total, more than double the tally of either the pro-democracy Democratic Party or Civic Party, or of its sister organisation, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), which each won six seats.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The Democratic Party, the flagship pro-democracy party, suffered the worst defeat since its creation in 1994, winning only six seats and lost all its seats in the New Territories West, while the radical democrats League of Social Democrats and the newly formed People Power doubled their total votes. Despite the addition of five new geographical constituency seats, the pan-democrats won one seat fewer than in the 2008 election; infighting within the camp was blamed. The Civic Party failed in their election strategy as two of their incumbents, Audrey Eu and Tanya Chan, placed second on the lists in Hong Kong Island and New Territories West both received over 70,000 votes, far more than other lists, but still unable to get re-elected.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The pro-business Liberal Party's chairwoman Miriam Lau failed to gain a seat in Hong Kong Island, winning the least seat in party history although James Tien regained his seat in New Territories East. Both Miriam Lau from the Liberals and Albert Ho from the Democrats resigned their seats as chairs after the defeat.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election
The pan-democracy and pro-Beijing camps both placed three lists in contest of the five new District Council (Second) functional constituency seats. Three of them went to the Democrats Albert Ho and James To and Frederick Fung from the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). The Beijing-loyalists could only win two seats with FTU's Chan Yuen-han and DAB's Starry Lee each got one seat. Veteran Lau Kong-wah became the only DAB candidate who was placed first on a candidate list but lost in the election.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Eligibility, Right to vote
As at 9 September 2012, a person has the right to vote in a Legislative Council election if he/she fulfils all of the below criteria :


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Eligibility, Right to stand
To stand as a candidate in a geographical constituency, a person must fulfil all of the below criteria:


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, New structure of the Legislative Council, Geographical constituencies
Under the constitutional reform package passed in 2010, this election saw LegCo increase its total size from 60 seats to 70 seats, half of which are geographical constituencies (GCs) and half functional constituencies (FCs). The GC seats are returned by universal suffrage, with the Kowloon West constituency once again returning five seats, while the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East, and New Territories West constituencies each gain one new seat and New Territories East, the second largest constituency, gaining two extra seats. The election uses a system of party-list proportional representation, with seats allocated by the largest remainder method using the Hare quota as the quota for election.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, New structure of the Legislative Council, Functional constituencies
While the electoral methods in the 30 'traditional' FC seats remain unchanged, the five new seats form a new constituency called the District Council, for which candidates may be nominated by the District councillors and are elected by all registered voters who are not in any 'traditional' FC, creating the largest constituency with a total of more than 3.2 million eligible electors. The vote counting system used is the same as that in the GCs: the party-list proportional representation with the largest remainder method and Hare quota.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Retiring incumbents
Thirteen incumbents chose not to run for re-election. Paul Chan's Accountancy seat was vacant since 29 July 2012 and Chim Pui-chung withdrew his nomination on 27 July 2012.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, New leadership under Leung Chun-ying
As Leung Chun-ying sworn in on 1 July, he sought a foothold in the Legislative Council against his defeated rival, Henry Tang. The Tang supporter for the Financial Services functional constituency, Chim Pui-chung, decided to withdraw his nomination for re-election on 27 July, while Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, who voted for CY Leung and was also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, decided to run in the constituency.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, New leadership under Leung Chun-ying
Other Leung's supporters including Martin Liao Cheung-kong, Ng Leung-sing and Ma Fung-kwok also ran in other functional constituencies, replacing the original pro-Tang legislators Philip Wong, David Li and Timothy Fok.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, New leadership under Leung Chun-ying
On the day CY Leung assumed the Chief Executive, there were about 400,000 participants in the July 1 marches, the biggest anti-government rally in recent history.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, Moral and National Education controversy
Moral and civic education was one of the four key tasks in the 2001 curriculum reform undertaken by the Education and Manpower Bureau (superseded by the Education Bureau in 2007), and its framework was revised by the Education Bureau in 2008. On 13 October 2010, Chief Executive Donald Tsang stated in the "Policy Address 2010–2011" that moral and national education would replace MCE to "strengthen national education". The government planned to introduce the new subject in primary schools in 2012 and secondary schools in 2013.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, Moral and National Education controversy
In July 2012, the "Civil Alliance Against the National Education" (民間反對國民教育科大聯盟) was formed. On 29 July 2012, 30 organisations protested in a march. According to the organisers, more than 90,000 protesters, including many parents with their children, participated in the march.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, Moral and National Education controversy
Members of the student activist group Scholarism (學民思潮) began their occupation of the Hong Kong government headquarters on 30 August 2012. Fifty members occupied the public park beneath the government offices, of which three began a hunger strike. The goal of the protest was, expressly, to force the government to retract its plans to introduce Moral and National Education as a compulsory subject. The initial planned length of the occupation was three days. On 3 September 2012 the Civil Alliance Against National Education announced that they would continue their occupation of the government headquarters indefinitely. On 7 September, up to 120,000 people attended a demonstration outside the government headquarters; police said there were 36,000 attendees at 9:30 pm.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Pre-election issues, Moral and National Education controversy
Following opposition from the public, the government postponed the commencement of the subject by introducing a three-year trial run period, such that the schools were allowed to commence the latest in 2015.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
The election was marked with the record of 287 candidates. 67 lists with a total of 216 candidates contested the 35 geographical constituencies, while 53 candidates contested in the traditional functional constituencies, in which 16 of them returned to LegCo uncontested.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
The largest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party, suffered the largest  defeat since its creation in 1994, while the radical democrats League of Social Democrats and the newly formed People Power doubled their votes. Despite the addition of five new geographical constituency seats, the pan-democrats won one seat fewer than in the 2008 poll; infighting within the camp was blamed. Audrey Eu and Tanya Chan, the incumbent Civic Party legislators, placed second on the lists in Hong Kong Island and New Territories West both received over 70,000 votes, far more than other lists, but still were not re-elected. (see 2012 Hong Kong legislative election in Hong Kong Island and New Territories West)


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
The Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong remained the largest party, winning 13 seats in total. All the lists in the geographical constituencies were elected as they split their candidates into several lists to avoid wasting votes under the largest remainder method.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
Christopher Chung revealed the DAB, of which he is a member, had secretly engaged in illegally allocating votes with the FTU based on the results of the party's own exit polling results; he said that both he and Jasper Tsang switched over to campaigning for the Wong Kwok-hing of the FTU at around 6 pm, after the DAB had reached their quota of vote.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
Following the election, Albert Ho, resigned as leader of the Democratic Party, citing failure to present a united front for the pan-democratic camp, failure to retain seats from the previous elections, and infighting between pro-democracy parties. Miriam Lau, the leader of the Liberal Party, also resigned as leader, citing her failure to win a seat in this election and a need for new leadership in the party.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
Nine of the 16 uncontested functional constituency seats went to the Liberal Party, Economic Synergy and nonpartisan Lam Tai-fai from the "Tang camp", who are mostly the business and commercial sectors.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
Leung's supporters took several seats in the functional constituencies. Pro -Leung Lo Wai-kwok defeated incumbent Raymond Ho Chung-tai who nominated Henry Tang in the CE election and pro-democrat Albert Lai in the Engineering sector. In Tourism, Architectural, Surveying and Planning and Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication constituencies, Yiu Si-wing, Tony Tse Wai-chuen and Ma Fung-kwok were also elected. Leung's backers Ng Leung-sing and Martin Liao Cheung-kong won seats unopposed to the finance and Commercial (Second) functional constituencies respectively.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
The acting president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union Ip Kin-yuen and Civic Party Dennis Kwok retained their seats in the traditionally pro-democracy Education and Legal sectors. Cheung Kwok-che of the Labour Party and nonpartisan Joseph Lee Kok-long also secured their seats in the Social Welfare and Health Services constituencies. In addition, the pan democrats gained two more seats in Information Technology and Accountancy with newcomers Charles Mok and Kenneth Leung.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results
The pan-democrats won three out of five seats in the new District Council (Second) functional constituency with Albert Ho and James To from the Democratic Party and Frederick Fung from the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood. The Beijing loyalists could only won two seats with Chan Yuen-han of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and Starry Lee of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) each got one seat. Veteran Lau Kong-wah became the only DAB candidate who was placed first on a candidate list but lost in the election (see 2012 Hong Kong legislative election in District Council).


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results, Votes gained by each party by districts
Popular votes by District Council constituency. Red represents Pro-Beijing camp gained most votes and green the Pro-democracy camp. Pro -Beijing remained stronghold in the rural areas in Ha Tsuen, Pat Heung, Sai Kung District, Sha Tau Kok, Ta Kwu Ling and Lamma Island. Some urban areas in Mid-Levels, North Point, Chai Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Sau Mau Ping, Yau Tong and Shek Wai Kok showed more support for the Pro-Beijing camp. Pro -democracy camp grabbed majority of the votes in the rest areas.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results, Votes gained by each party by districts
The election showed large swings in Mid-Levels areas in Hong Kong Island and New Territories West, particularly in Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Kwai Tsing, Tin Shui Wai, and Tseung Kwan O in New Territories East, but the rural areas as well as urban areas in Sheung Shui, Tai Po, Sha Tin and Wong Tai Sin showed a small swing back to the pro-democrats.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results, Votes gained by each party by districts
Results of the 2012 LegCo election geographical constituencies: the party with most votes in each District Council Constituency.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Results, Votes gained by each party by districts
Results of the 2012 LegCo election District Council (second) functional constituency.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Candidates lists and results, Geographical Constituencies (35 seats)
Voting system: Party-list proportional representation with largest remainder method and Hare quota.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Candidates lists and results, District Council (Second) Functional Constituency (5 seats)
Voting system: Party-list proportional representation with largest remainder method and Hare quota.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election, Candidates lists and results, Other Functional Constituencies (30 seats)
Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance and Transport, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the first-past-the-post voting system.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in District Council (Second)
These are the District Council (Second) functional constituency results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 5 seats in were contested. The five new seats formed a new constituency under new arrangements agreed in a contentious LegCo vote in 2010, for which candidates may be nominated by the District councillors and are elected by all registered voters who are not in any 'traditional' FC, creating the largest constituency with a total of more than 3.2 million eligible electors. The vote counting system used is the same as that in the GCs: the party-list proportional representation with the largest remainder method and Hare quota.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in District Council (Second)
The pro-democracy camp and pro-Beijing camp each set out three lists aiming for three of the five seats while the largest parties from the both camps, the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong each put two lists for the contest and the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood and Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the smaller parties having strong roots in the District Councils put out one list. The other democratic parties which were against the constitutional reform package boycotted the election.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in Hong Kong Island
These are the Hong Kong Island results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 7 seats in Hong Kong Island were contested. The pro-Beijing camp achieved a majority of Island seats for the first time with the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong gained two seats with two separate lists led by Tsang Yok-sing and Christopher Chung respectively.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in Hong Kong Island
Both Civic Party and People Power failed in getting the last seat in whom Tanya Chan placed second on the Civic's candidate list and Christopher Lau were defeated by Wong Kwok-hing from the Federation of Trade Unions. Besides, 24-year-long member Miriam Lau of the Liberal Party also lost in her first attempt of direct election.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in Kowloon East
These are the Kowloon East results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 5 seats in Kowloon East where consisted of Wong Tai Sin District and Kwun Tong District were contested. It was the first time the Pro-Beijing camp gained the majority of the Kowloon East seats. The Democratic Party, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Federation of Trade Unions and Civic Party each secured their party's incumbent seat. The new last seat was gained by the pro-Beijing independent candidate Paul Tse, defeating the two radical democrats Wong Yeung-tat and Andrew To and former LegCo member Mandy Tam with narrow margin.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in Kowloon West
These are the Kowloon West results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 5 seats in Kowloon West where consisted of Yau Tsim Mong District, Sham Shui Po District and Kowloon City District were contested. Ann Chiang replacing Starry Lee who contested the District Council (Second) functional constituency stood for the largest pro-Beijing party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood's Tam Kwok-kiu replacing Frederick Fung who contested the new super seats as well, however lost to his ally Civic Party's Claudia Mo who was not elected in 2008. The ADPL once again lost all the seats in this stronghold since the 1998 election.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in New Territories East
These are the New Territories East results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 9 seats in New Territories East where consisted of North District, Tai Po District, Sai Kung District and Sha Tin District were contested. The pro-democracy camp strategically succeeded in holding six seats with only 56.9% of the votes. Raymond Chan Chi-chuen of the People Power and Gary Fan of Neo Democrats were elected for the first time. Former Civic Party legislator also returned to the LegCo representing the newly formed Labour Party.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in New Territories West
These are the New Territories West results of the 2012 Hong Kong legislative election. The election was held on 9 September 2012 and all 9 seats in New Territories West, which consists of Tsuen Wan District, Tuen Mun District, Yuen Long District, Kwai Tsing District and Islands District, were contested. The Democratic Party suffered a devastating result by losing all two of their seats in the region.


2012 Hong Kong legislative election in New Territories West
The electoral strategy of the Civic Party, the heavyweight Audrey Eu placed second after Kwok Ka-ki in the hope of gaining two seats, produced an extra 70,000 votes but this was still not enough to get Eu into the LegCo. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong split three separate lists in order to avoid wasted votes (see largest remainder method). All three DAB lists were elected.


2012 Hong Kong–Macau Interport
The 68th Hong Kong–Macau Interport was an association football match held in Macau on 16 June 2012. Macau were the defending champions as they captured the champion by winning 1-0 the previous year.


2012 Hong Kong–Macau Interport, Squads, Hong Kong
Note: Leung Kwun Chung was original selected in the main squad. However, he resigned due to injury. Wong Yim Kwan and Lo Kong Wai were then selected to the squad.


2012 Hong Kong–Shanghai Inter Club Championship
The 2012 Hong Kong–Shanghai Inter Club Championship was held on 1 November and 10 November 2012. The first leg will be played at Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground, Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong, with the second leg taken place at Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium, Shanghai. Current defending champions of Hong Kong First Division League Kitchee was selected to represent Hong Kong while Chinese League One champions Shanghai Tellace represents Shanghai.


2012 Hong Kong–Shanghai Inter Club Championship
Kitchee suffered a 4–0 defeat at home and they failed to make a win in Shanghai as they lost 2–3. Shanghai Tellace is the champions of 2012 Hong Kong–Shanghai Inter Club Championship.


2012 Honolulu Challenger
The 2012 Honolulu Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the third edition of the tournament which was part of the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Honolulu, United States between 23 and 29 January 2011.


2012 Honolulu Challenger, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2012 Honolulu Challenger, Singles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following player received entry as an alternate into the singles main draw:


2012 Honolulu Challenger, Champions, Doubles
Amer Delić /  Travis Rettenmaier def. Nicholas Monroe /  Jack Sock 6–4, 7–6(7–3)


2012 Honolulu Challenger – Doubles
Ryan Harrison and Travis Rettenmaier were the defending champions but Harrison decided not to participate. Rettenmaier played alongside Amer Delić and successfully defended his title defeating Nicholas Monroe and Jack Sock in the final 6–4, 7–6(7–3).


2012 Honolulu Challenger – Singles
Ryan Harrison was the defending champion, but chose not to participate.


2012 Honolulu Challenger – Singles
Go Soeda won the title, defeating Robby Ginepri in the final 6–3, 7–6(7–5).


2012 Honolulu mayoral election
The 2012 Honolulu mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu. Kirk Caldwell was elected mayor, beating opponent and former Hawaii governor Ben Cayetano.


2012 Honolulu mayoral election
The position of Mayor of Honolulu is non-partisan. A non-partisan blanket primary was held on 11 August 2012. Because no candidate received an outright majority of the vote in the primary, the top two finishers, Ben Cayetano and Kirk Caldwell, advanced to the November general election runoff. Incumbent Independent mayor Peter Carlisle was seeking a first full term in office but finished third in the primary and did not proceed to the runoff election.


2012 Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup XXIV (also known as the Hyundai Hopman Cup for sponsorship reasons) corresponds to the 24th edition of the Hopman Cup tournament between nations in men's and women's tennis. The tournament commenced on 31 December 2011 at the Burswood Dome in Perth, Western Australia.


2012 Hopman Cup
Eight teams competed for the title, with two round robin groups of four, from which the top team of each group progressed to the final.


2012 Hopman Cup
United States were the 2011 champions. In that tournament's final the United States of America team of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and John Isner defeated Belgium's Justine Henin and Ruben Bemelmans 2–1. This was the USA's sixth Hopman Cup title.


2012 Hopman Cup
Czech Republic won their second title, defeating France in the final 2–0.


2012 Hopman Cup, Tournament
The 2012 Hyundai Hopman Cup was an invitational tennis tournament and is also known as the Official Mixed Teams Championships of the ITF. The 2012 cup had prize money of $1 million and followed the traditional round robin format, the leading teams after three round robin matches qualified for the final. All matches were best of three sets with the exception of the doubles match where a match tie break, first to ten points, was played if the match was tied at one set all. All ties were played in this format; women's singles, men's singles and finally mixed doubles. In the event of a tie in the final group standings the following will be used to separate the nations;


2012 Hopman Cup, Entrants, Seeds
The seeds for the 2012 Hopman Cup were decided by tournament director Paul McNamee, Rob Casey and Geoff Masters.


2012 Horizon Laser Vision Center Classic
The 2012 Horizon Laser Vision Center Classic was held from September 28 to October 1 at the Tartan Curling Club in Regina, Saskatchewan as part of the 2012–13 World Curling Tour. The event was held in a triple-knockout format, and the purse for the event was CAD$16,000.


2012 Horizon Laser Vision Center Classic, Teams
One women's team entered the event (Michelle Englot). The rest are men's teams.


2012 Horizon League Baseball Tournament
The 2012 Horizon League Baseball Tournament took place from May 23–27. All six of the league's teams met in the double-elimination tournament held at UIC's Les Miller Field. Top seeded Valparaiso won their first Horizon League Championship and earned the conference's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.


2012 Horizon League Baseball Tournament, Seeding
The league's six teams are seeded one through six based on winning percentage, using conference games only.


2012 Horizon League Baseball Tournament, All-Tournament Team, Most Valuable Player
Mark Johnson was named Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Johnson was an outfielder for Valparaiso.


2012 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2012 Horizon League Men’s Basketball Tournament began on February 28 and ended on March 6. The Horizon League Network broadcast the first and second rounds. The semifinals were televised by ESPNU, with the championship game on ESPN. The Detroit Titans won the tournament and an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.


2012 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament
Each first-round game was played on the home court of the higher-seeded team. The second round and semifinals were held at the Athletics-Recreation Center in Valparaiso, Indiana, home to the #1 overall seed Valparaiso. Since Valparaiso advanced to the championship game, the Crusaders also hosted the final.


2012 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament, Seeds
All Horizon League schools play in the tournament. Teams are seeded by 2011–12 Horizon League season record, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. The top 2 teams receive a bye to the semifinals.


2012 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament, Bracket
First round games at campus sites of lower-numbered seeds Second round and semifinals hosted by Valparaiso Championship game hosted by highest remaining seed


2012 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament, Honors, Tournament MVP
Ray McCallum, Jr. of Detroit was named the tournament MVP.