Donald Tsang won the landslide victory by winning 649 votes in the 800-member Election Committee against pro-democrat contender, Civic Party legislator Alan Leong.

Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, the former chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) resigned from the ExCo after he was elected as the President of the Legislative Council.

Tsang has undertaken to push ahead with 10 large-scale infrastructure projects within his term of office to boost economic activities and improve the living environment in Hong Kong.

Those projects include: (1) Extension of the mass transit railway to Southern District; (2) Sha Tin to Central Link; (3) Tuen Mun Western Bypass and Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link; (4) Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link; (5) Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; (6) Hong Kong-Shenzhen Airport Co-operation; (7) Hong Kong-Shenzhen Joint Development of the Lok Ma Chau Loop; (8) West Kowloon Cultural District; (9) Kai Tak Development Plan; and (10) New Development Areas at Kwu Tung North, Fanling North, Ping Che and Ta Kwu Ling and Hung Shui Kiu.

Coupled with the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme, Tsang aimed at reducing inter-generational poverty by helping children of low-income families grow and learn from early childhood to adolescence.

For instance, to reduce the development density of the Central Ferry Piers site and open up the public space along the waterfront for entertainment, recreational and cultural uses; to remove the Central Market from the Application List and hand it over to the Urban Renewal Authority for conservation and revitalization; and to convert the Murray Building into a hotel through open tender etc.

[11] On 20 July, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung announced the waiver commencement date would be brought forward by one month.

[16] Controversies surrounded not only the suspicions of Leung's own conflict of interest, but also of the insensitivity of the committee which recommended the approval for him to take up his lucrative new job less than two years after his official retirement.

On 15 August, the Civil Service Bureau issued the report requested by Donald Tsang, where they admitted that they had neglected to consider Leung's role in the Hung Hom Peninsula affair.

Tsang ordered a committee, of which Yue was to be a member, to be set up to perform a sweeping review of the system to process applications for former civil servants.

Tsang's policy address disappointed the pan democratic legislators as lacked anything of substance, the only mention of political reform was of consultations to begin in the following month.

[22] However, Tsang's plan to give each household a 100 Hong Kong dollar (US$13) voucher in February to buy fluorescent bulbs aroused controversy.

Mr Mok also issued a statement, clarifying that his business has not monopolized the market, since his company also sells incandescent conventional light bulbs.

Radio commentators suggested the policy and the allegations reflected a lack of political sensitivity on the part of the administration of public concerns about collusion between government officials and the business sector.

The administration was involved in controversy when Zhou Yongjun (周勇军), a former student activist during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, was rendered by the Hong Kong authorities to the People's Republic of China in September 2008.

Concerns over many aspects of the project were expressed, including significant cost escalations compared to estimates made one year previously; there were demonstrations of more than 1,000 people protesting against the construction of the rail link in late 2009 and early 2010.

[32] The Hong Kong media exposed Tsang's plan to live his retirement life in a 6,500 sq ft apartment in the nearby city of Shenzhen.

The luxurious apartment is owned by the developer Wong Cho-bau, who has ties with the Chinese government and runs multiple businesses in both China and Hong Kong.

[34][35] The case resulted in the conviction of Rafael Hui, Thomas Kwok, and several executives of Sun Hung Kai Properties who acted as middlemen.