The Selection Committee was an electoral college created by the Preparatory Committee in 1996 for electing the first chief executive and Provisional Legislative Council after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The Selection Committee was responsible for recommending and electing the candidate for the first chief executive through local consultations.
[1] Under the Basic Law, the Selection Committee would have 400 members made up of Hong Kong permanent residents.
The composition of the body was equally split among four functional sectors: industrial, commercial, and financial; professional; labour, social services and religious; and politics (26 Hong Kong deputies to the NPC automatically became the members of the Selection Committee, former political figures, and Hong Kong members of the National CPPCC).
It followed the procedures of nominations: a nominee had to submit his or her name to a body he or she was a member of certain commercial chamber or professional institutes and reviewed by the relevant bodies, and then nominated to the Preparatory Committee for reviewing.