Tung Chee Hwa had long been an unpopular Chief Executive, especially after the controversies over the Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law which caused more than 500,000 people to march on 1 July 2003.

Tung claimed his health was deteriorating early in 2005 and suddenly resigned on 10 March 2005 which triggered the election of the Chief Executive.

The pro-democracy camp, with Democratic Party's chairman Lee Wing-tat as the Chief Executive candidate, attempted to get over 100 nominations from the Election Committee to enter the race to prevent Donald Tsang being elected uncontested.

Reasons for the 33 vacancies ascertained in 17 subsectors are as follows:[1] The six empty seats in the religious sector were nominated by the religious councils.

Harry Ha Kay-wai from the Chinese Muslim Cultural and Fraternal Association, Thomas Soo Yee-po from the Hong Kong Christian Council, Tong Wai-ki, Cheung Kam-hung and Lo Wai-kon from the Hong Kong Taoist Association, and Wu Tai-chow from the Confucian Academy duly nominated as the members of the Election Committee Religious Subsector.