HK poll puts Peking in its place

HONG KONG's first Legislative Council election under Chinese rule, held yesterday, looks set to deliver a massive rebuff to the post-colonial administration.

Exit polls issued last night suggested that pro-democracy candidates have secured by far the largest share of the vote, knocking the leaders of the two biggest pro-Peking cities out of the legislature.

However, Hong Kong's uniquely complex election system ensures that, despite their share of the poll, the democrats will get no more than around one- third of the seats in the legislature. Only that proportion of the seats is open to election by all voters. The rest are elected by mainly small business and professional groups.

Although the territory suffered atrocious weather yesterday, the voter turnout was far higher than was expected with just over half the electorate turning out. Analysts were predicting that few voters would go to the polls.

But it appears that anger with the government's handling of the economic downturn, and a strong protest against the abolition of the last elected legislature, persuaded many people to vote. The results will be available later today but exit polls have proved to be reliable in past elections.

If the exit polls do prove to be accurate, Allen Lee, one of Hong Kong's best-known conservative politicians and leader of the Liberal Party, will have been spurned by the voters. The other likely high-level casualty is Tsang Yok-shing, leader of the largest pro-Peking party.

The biggest vote-winners appear to be Martin Lee, leader of the Democratic Party and Emily Lau, an uncompromising pro-democracy advocate.