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.

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 Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) whose decision would be final and could not be appealed.

The Chinese Government had reportedly asked Hong Kong authorities to put a hold on the election procedures in January 2022.

[8] Amidst the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong and following order from Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, to prioritize control of the pandemic, the Hong Kong Government invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance on 18 February 2022 to postpone the Chief Executive election from 27 March 2022 to 8 May 2022,[9] despite Chief Executive Carrie Lam saying there was no need for a postponement just a week prior.

[13] On 4 April, Carrie Lam, eligible for re-election,[14] announced that she would not seek a second term in office and would leave public service entirely, citing a desire to spend more time with her family.

Lee was also criticised as being "surprisingly weak and unprepared" in a "carefully choreographed" press conference,[33] without details on election manifesto.

[31] Senior government loyalists also sought to play down criticism that the leadership race did not field any rivals to Lee.

Maria Tam, former Convenor of National People's Congress Hong Kong delegation, said "having one person run for (chief executive) does not mean we have fewer choices".

[72] The slogan of the rally was also noticed by the public for the grammatical error, which includes the rarely used Chinese wording "我和我們" (lit.

Lee's campaign office later claimed the slogan hoped to show unity, and criticised those "only insisting on their ideas" are "disrespectful".

[80] The selection did not gather many attention because of its non-popular vote nature,[81] and the rather lack of human touch by John Lee.

[83] League of Social Democrats (LSD), one of the only remaining pro-democracy groups, held a three-person protest before polls opened, chanting "power to the people, universal suffrage now".

[85] Group of Seven (G7) also released a statement, expressing grave concern over the selection as part of a continued assault on political pluralism and fundamental freedoms, and call on China to act in accordance with its legal obligations.