The Democratic Party leadership election was held on 14 December 2012 for the 30-member 11th Central Committee of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, including chairperson and two vice-chairperson posts. Incumbent Chairperson Emily Lau secured her post against three other candidates after two rounds of election.

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Democratic Party (HK) leadership election

← 2012 14 December 2014 2016 →

Candidate Emily Lau Wu Chi-wai 1st ballot 158 (50.0%) 104 (32.9%) 2nd ballot 171 (54.1%) 145 (45.9%)   Candidate Au Nok-hin Stanley Ng 1st ballot 33 (10.4%) 21 (6.6%) 2nd ballot Eliminated Eliminated

Chairperson before election Emily Lau Elected Chairperson Emily Lau

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The Central Committee was elected by the party congress. All public office holders, including the members of the Legislative Council and District Councils, are eligible to vote in the party congress.^[1] The electoral method changed in this election, the eligibility of members electing a delegate who holds one vote in the congress from 30 members each delegate to only 5 members.^[2] Candidate also needs a majority in order to claim victory.^[3]

The election was held right after the Umbrella Movement was cleared out. The 20-year-old Democratic Party sought to reposition itself in the post-Occupy era in which the young generation took a big role.

Emily Lau, Legislative Councillor since 1991, is the incumbent chairwoman who took the post in the 2012 leadership election. She said she would put more efforts into the district works and electoral campaign.

Lau faced challenges from three other candidates. Wu Chi-wai, Legislative Councillor since 2012 and a long-time Wong Tai Sin District Councillor stressed the importance of the repositioning of the party after the post-Occupy era and taking a leading role in the district works. Stanley Ng, incumbent Treasurer of the party and town planner by profession suggested reform on party's structure, adding the posts of party leader and also deputy secretary. Au Nok-hin who was 27 years old from the young generation, ran for the chairmanship for the second consecutive term. Au was among the vanguard of the youngsters over the fence on 26 September, part of the group launching the Occupation of Civic Plaza, leading to the full blown Umbrella movement.

The elected members of the 11th Central Committee are listed as following:

• Chairlady: Emily Lau
• Vice-chairmen: Lo Kin-hei, Andrew Wan Siu-kin
• Treasurer: Yuen Hoi-man
• Secretary: Li Wing-shing
• Vice-secretary: Mark Li Kin-yin
• Executive Committee Members:

• Central Committee Members:

After winning the election, Emily Lau noted that the Democrats were very concerned about waning support among young people and called for party to focus on younger generation, working on strategies to engage young people, such as through university student unions and also make more use of social media.^[4]

Re-elected vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei said, "Voting for Lau should not be interpreted as a lack of motivation for changes in the party. Instead, it means Lau is more experienced in leading the party in the current political environment."^[5]

On 23 January 2015, secretary general Cheung Yin-tung and his disciple Kwong Chun-yu resigned their positions on the Central Committee. Some speculated their disaffections towards the dominance of the Mainstreamer faction led by the "triumvirate", Yeung Sum, Cheung Man-kwong and Lee Wing-tat.^[6]

In July 2015, former legislator and member of the party central committee Wong Sing-chi was expelled from the Democratic Party due to his defiance of the party line and clandestine proposal in support of the government's constitutional reform package, which was panned by pan-democrats for being "fake universal suffrage".

A by-election for the three vacancies in the Central Committee was held in the annual party congress on 6 December 2015. Founding member Howard Lam Tsz-kin, Lam Ka-ka and Chau Man-fong who were considered in Chai Man-hon's faction were elected, while Ng Siu-hong of the Hui Chi-fung's faction was not elected. Chai and Ng were considered potential candidates for running in Hong Kong Island in the 2016 Legislative Council election.^[7]