Pro-democracy groups retain one-third veto in HK vote

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – Hong Kongers have elected a new generation of pro-democracy activists to Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) in results published after voters flocked to polling stations to vote in the territory’s first election since the 11-week pro-democracy protests of 2014.

Among the at least four activists elected to Hong Kong’s 70-member legislative council (Legco), Monday was a 23-year old at the forefront of the 2014 "Umbrella Protests" for self-determination who described the 50,818 votes that saw him swept into a legislative seat on Hong Kong Island as “support as well as trust”.

“It can be described as a miracle that I won,” the South China Morning Post quoted Nathan Law Kwun-chung as saying.

“It was out of my imagination that I won with more than 50,000 votes. The [large number of] votes will remind me to do better and not to let people down in the next four years.”

At 5.30 a.m (0930GMT), pro-democracy groups had retained their one-third veto bloc in Legco, with the final votes still being counted.

Official results show that their candidates had won at least 27 seats - three more than they require to block attempts by the territory's government to enact controversial or unpopular legislation.

Despite the gains, China's supporters will continue to hold the majority of seats on the council.

Only 40 of Legco's 70 seats are directly elected by the public, while special-interest groups select the rest.

The vote is the last before a successor to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying – who polls have shown as having a low popularity rating -- is elected in March for the top post in the former British colony.

Before Sunday’s vote, six candidates were disqualified for their deemed pro-independence stances after a new Electoral Affairs Commission ruling requiring those running to sign a document accepting Hong Kong as “an inalienable part of China".

The ruling has been challenged in the courts.

The 2014 protests, which involved more than 100,000 people at their peak as people were angered by what was widely seen as excessive use of by police, were sparked by opposition to a Beijing-backed election reform package.