title: Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government
text: # Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government
  
  The Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government (Chinese: 民主政制促進聯委會, abbreviated 民促會; JGPDG) was an umbrella organisation representing various groups of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It was established on 27 October 1986 by 190 groups and led by the prominent pro-democracy figures Szeto Wah and Martin Lee, two members in the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC), pushing for a faster pace of democratisation in the drafting of the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
  
  For the transition period up to 1997, the committee demanded direct election in the 1988 Legislative Council, a "through train" arrangement for letting Legislative Council members elected in 1995 automatically becoming the members of the first legislature in the SAR government after 1997. They also demanded the Chief Executive to be elected by universal suffrage.
  
  The committee formed the backbone of today's pro-democracy camp as many of its key members formed the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China during the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and the United Democrats of Hong Kong (later transformed into Democratic Party) for the first direct election in 1991.
  
  ## Members
  
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