HK democracy advocates win crucial election seats

Democracy supporters have won enough seats on an election committee to put a candidate on Hong Kong's leadership race ballot for the first time since the territory returned to Chinese rule nearly 10 years ago, the democrats said yesterday.

Pro-democracy lawmakers smiled, hugged each other and flashed victory signs with their fingers as they celebrated winning more than 100 seats on the 800-member election panel, which will decide who can run in the March vote for chief executive.

"I was a little bit shocked this morning that we did well," lawmaker Ronny Tong (湯家驊) said, adding that pro-democracy forces only expected to win about 80 seats.

Passing the 100-seat threshold was crucial for the democrats because candidates for chief executive need to be supported by at least 100 members of the committee to be included on the ballot. In the past two elections, the pro-Beijing candidate coasted to victory unchallenged.

The panel will elect the city's leader. Voters do not pick the chief executive in a direct election, but committee members are supposed to represent the people.

Lawmaker Alan Leong (梁家傑), the pro-democracy candidate in the leadership race, said the weekend's election made him confident that he would get on the ballot in March.

Turnout on Sunday for the vote for the election committee seats hit a record high of 27 percent of eligible voters, compared to 19.5 percent when such a vote was held in 2000. This year, there were about 204,000 eligible voters who represented various public interest and professional groups.

The turnout "sends a clear and loud message to those in power that people want a contested chief executive election. We want to see Hong Kong democratized and the message can't be interpreted in any other way," Leong said.

If Leong is allowed to run, he'll be in for a tough battle.

Despite Sunday's victory, the pro-democracy camp is far from holding a majority of the 800 member committee.

Lawmaker Yeung Sum (楊森), a member of the pro-democracy movement, said that 114 people backed by the pro-democracy camp were elected in Sunday's vote.

Pro-democracy supporters also have an additional 20 lawmakers -- who automatically have positions on the panel -- inclined to vote for their candidate, Tong said. The total pro-democracy head count is 134 -- much more than the group expected, Tong said.

The likely candidate, Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), said Sunday's voting process was fair, open and transparent.

"We hope those who are qualified and those who intend to participate in the election in March should seriously consider doing so," Tsang said.

Ma Ngok (馬嶽), a political scientist at Chinese University in Hong Kong, said that the democrats' larger presence on the election committee will help protect them against any possible attempts by Beijing to intimidate voters.

"Even if the central government wants to put pressure on the election committee members, it will be a very difficult task to take away 30 votes," Ma said.