Incumbent Chief Executive Donald Tsang was re-elected, defeating the pro-democracy challenger, legislator Alan Leong of the Civic Party by 649 to 123 votes in the 796-member Election Committee dominated by the pro-Beijing electors.

It has been said that the competitive nature of this election, with debates held between the candidates, changed Hong Kong's political culture.

Barrister Alan Leong, member of the Civic Party and Legislative Council first expressed his interest in running as early as September 2006.

Although the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion, it was hoped that the debates would stimulate discussion about the future direction of Hong Kong, were meant for the respective candidates to put forward their political visions for public scrutiny.

The first debate was held on 1 March 2007, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, presided by Rita Fan; the second 90-minute debate was held on 15 March 2007 at the TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, co-organized by the 8 main media corporations in Hong Kong.

Questions raised by 22 members of the Election Committee and 7 citizens covered areas of democracy (doubts on universal suffrage), economic development, educational reform, etc.

The issues which drew most heated argument from both candidates concerned democratic development and the relationship between central and SAR governments.

He crawled like a dog in front of the stage and shouted slogans opposing the small-circle election, but was escorted out by 10 security guards.

Other organisations also protested outside the venue concerned mainly about the lack of public participation in the forum, and also some social problems which existed in society.

A public opinion programme organised by the University of Hong Kong has shown that 46.5% of the 510 respondents considered Tsang outperformed Leong while 33.9% of them thought the opposite.

Nevertheless, all the figures reflect an unexpected performance displayed by Leong, who adopted a combative approach and seized every opportunity to attack Tsang's record, especially in terms of environmental protection and the possibility of universal suffrage by 2012.

Liberal Party Chairman, James Tien said that although Tsang's campaign office apparently "lacked preparation", his performance "would not undermine the central government's support for him".

During the second debate, Tsang said that the commitment to universal suffrage was enshrined in the Basic Law, a national policy which nobody could change.

He promised he will start planning and negotiating the issue on the universal suffrage within the coming 5 years if he was successfully renewed in the post.

This caused a furore, prompting a senior mainland official and top local advisers to Beijing to defend the secrecy of the Chief Executive election vote.