In January 2010, five
Legislative Council members from the
Civic Party and resigned to trigger a territory-wide
by-election,
de facto referendum. The five candidates of the "5 District Referendum Movement" advocate implementation of true
universal suffrage and abolition of
functional constituencies in the government's
reform package for the
2012 Legislative Council election and
2012 Chief Executive election. Facing the boycott by the
pro-Beijing camp, students from the different HK universities formed Tertiary 2012 in March to fill in candidates in the five constituencies to prevent
uncontested election. They declared their aim to raise HK$250,000 to field one candidate for each vacant seat. The group, which have no formal alliance with other political parties, raised the necessary deposit from Internet donations and submitted their nomination papers on 1 April. The candidates all endorsed the cause of the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats, but their platform consists of continuing to press for universal suffrage in both the chief executive and Legislative Council elections in 2012. The candidates of the 5 District Referendum Movement were elected, with candidates from the Tertiary 2012 defeated. ==Candidates==