HK elections results disappoint

Pro-democracy made smaller than expected gains in Hong Kong elections, which were seen as a referendum on the territory's Beijing-backed rulers, results released yesterday showed.

Democratic expressed disappointment at their performance in Sunday's poll, despite securing a majority of the popular vote in an election marked by the highest-ever turnout in the former British colony.

The pro-democracy camp won a convincing 18 of the 30 legislative council seats which are chosen by the territory's 3.2 million voters, picking up 58.6 percent of ballots cast.

But pro-Beijing parties retained control of the council. The remaining 30 council seats are reserved for so-called functional constituencies representing mainly the business community and chosen by just 200,000 voters.

Calling election "open and fair," Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) vowed he will work more closely with the new legislators "on areas of concern including political and economic issues."

"This is a good election result. It was held in a fair, open and transparent manner and we are looking forward to working with the members of the new legislature," he said.

The election was fought against the backdrop of increasingly vocal calls for full democracy in the territory and efforts by Beijing to dampen such aspirations -- because of fears that a rush towards democracy would unsettle China.

The pro-democracy camp in total secured 25 seats on the 60-seat council, up from the 22 it previously held but down on projections of 28 or 29.

Pro-Beijing and independents who normally support them held the remaining seats, apparently undermining the democracy camp's case that voters would punish Beijing for ruling out fully democratic elections in 2007.

"I broke into tears" after hearing we had not won control, a defiant Yeung Sum (楊森), chairman of the pro-democracy camp's main organization, the Democratic Party, told a press conference.

However Yeung remained defiant, calling the result a "big step forward" and saying some good had come from the election.

"[The result] simply demonstrated that the majority of the people decided that they still want democracy."

China the polls as the "most democratic" in Hong Kong's history. It cautioned lawmakers to "be loyal to their vows and seriously carry out their work ... and bear in mind the overall and long-term interest of China as well as Hong Kong."

Beijing tried to sway voters with economic incentives and patriotic events including a visit by the country's Olympic team.

Critics claim it orchestrated a smear campaign involving allegations of sex and property scandals involving democrats.

The election was seen as a referendum on the city's sentiment towards Beijing following 14 months of turmoil when the Chinese leadership was accused of interfering in the running of the city.

Results delayed when electoral officials ordered a recount of ballots cast on Hong Kong Island, following allegations by pro-democracy candidates that rules had been breached.

Analysts the poorer than expected result on the democrats' poor election strategy.

"The deck is stacked against them," said Paul Harris, politics and government associate professor at Lingnan University. But he said parties had not used the complicated electoral system to their favor and had fielded the wrong combinations of candidates.

Some percent of the 3.2 million registered voters turned out, the highest number of ballots ever cast in any election in Hong Kong.