The president is elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage; election to the National Assembly, which is conducted simultaneously, is also largely decided on this basis, although a small proportion of National Assembly members are nominated by the president.
When the country held an election under direct suffrage for the first time, in 1913, no candidate won a majority, and the Legislative Assembly chose Alfredo González Flores as president.
It is almost certain to reject Occupy's demands that candidates for chief executive can be nominated by the public or by political parties, before the election by universal suffrage that Hong Kong is promised by its constitution under China, the Basic Law.The Basic Law stipulates that chief-executive candidates have to be approved by a "nominating committee".
However, if the CE election by universal suffrage fails to be implemented in 2017, it will be necessary to start the five-step process all over again to make possible the CE election by universal suffrage in 2022.
Supporters of the plan argued that it would have marked a major step toward the city's first chief executive election with universal suffrage.
This will mean that in principle, it is possible to have up to eight nominees before the Nominating Committee, which will then select from among them by democratic procedures two to three CE candidates for election by universal suffrage.
It does not appear that waiting until 2022 to implement the CE election by universal suffrage will necessarily improve the terms, since, in particular, it will depend on the prevailing conditions then.
Although it is common to equate representative government and elections with democracy, and although competitive elections under universal suffrage are one of democracy's defining characteristics, universal suffrage is not a necessary condition of competitive electoral politics.
1994 South Africa's first elections by universal suffrage are held in April.
It's been proposed that the Parliament have direct elections by universal suffrage.
