The 2022 Hong Kong Chief Executive election was held on 8 May 2022 for the 6th term of the Chief Executive (CE), the highest office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Incumbent Carrie Lam, who was elected in 2017, declined to seek a second term for family reasons and finished her term on 30 June 2022. Former Chief Secretary John Lee was the sole candidate approved by the central government of China in the election and the only candidate to be nominated. He received 1,416 electoral votes (99.44%) and assumed office on 1 July 2022. Background Universal suffrage advocacy The highest office of Hong Kong government, the Chief Executive, is selected by an Election Committee (EC) dominated by pro-Beijing politicians and tycoons. Since the terms of Article 45 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong requiring "selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures" have not been implemented, the progress to universal suffrage has been the dominant issue in Hong Kong politics since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. Change of political landscape Carrie Lam, then Chief Secretary, assumed office as Chief Executive in 2017. Her tenure was marred by controversies and unpopular policies, including the scandals of her cabinet ministers. In 2019, the government push for amending the extradition bill spurred massive anti-government protests calling for the withdrawal of the bill, which later evolved into blanket pro-democracy protests. The Government partially conceded and shelved the bill after violent clashes, which failed to help comforting protestors. A year later, the Hong Kong National Security Law was passed by China's central government to quell protests, followed by arrests of leading pro-democracy activists (also resulting in the dissolution of most pro-democracy political parties and organisations) and changing the electoral system. The changes allowed only government-defined "patriots" to rule the city, and allocated 40 legislative seats to the Election Committee (which also elects the Chief Executive), dominated by pro-Beijing members following the 2021 Hong Kong Election Committee Subsector elections. The number of directly-elected seats was reduced from 35 to 20. A new vetting mechanism would also be created to vet every candidate running for the Chief Executive, the Legislative Council and the Election Committee based on the approval of the Hong Kong Committee for Safeguarding National Security according to the review by the National Security Department of the