Hong Kong leader gets new term

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's China-backed leader Donald Tsang was awarded another term in office on Sunday when the handful of city elites allowed to vote easily re-elected him over a pro-democracy challenger.

The 800 members of Hong Kong's election committee are the only people in this territory of nearly seven million people allowed to vote for the chief executive, and they gave Tsang a 649-123 win over Alan Leong, officials said.

But for the first time since Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the race for leader was contested. Leong had hoped his presence would help nudge Hong Kong down the road to full democracy.

The 62-year-old Tsang, a career civil servant, turned up to vote in one of his trademark bow ties but refused to speak to reporters. He was to give a press conference later in the day.

Hong Kong, one of the world's main hubs of international finance, has been facing growing competition from cities in mainland China and grappling with a serious pollution problem that has made it less attractive to business leaders.

Governed by the rule of law and driven by the freest of free markets, Hong Kong has unique status in China -- a policy former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping described as "one country, two systems" when the 1997 handover took place.

But the universal suffrage envisioned in the Basic Law that was written for post-handover Hong Kong has not come to pass, and only some citizens are allowed to vote for some members of the election committee.

Challenger Leong, a 49-year-old, Cambridge-educated lawmaker and barrister, forced his way into the race when more than 100 pro-democracy supporters won seats on the committee.

Tsang was even compelled to hold two debates with Leong and campaign harder to make his case to the people -- steps toward democracy unthinkable in the Communist Party-ruled mainland.

"The open debates were unprecedented. This has changed Hong Kong's political dynamism. This is something that Beijing couldn't have imagined," said Allen Lee, a Chinese lawmaker turned political commentator.

"The biggest contribution Alan Leong gave us was the debates. I think Hong Kong people wouldn't accept an election that is not competitive in future."

At his final rally with supporters on Saturday, the challenger said he though the had won people round to the idea of a competitive vote.

"A lot of people said to me, 'You are definitely going to lose, but that doesn't matter,'" Leong said.

Protesters were kept out of sight during the brief two-hour vote. They were outnumbered by the police and were confined to a spot at least a kilometre from the polling station's main entrance.

Only some 50 protesters gathered outside the venue, chanting: "Donald, Shame on you!"

Tsang now gets five more years in office. He became chief executive after the resignation of Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's first post-colonial leader, in 2005 and secured a mandate from the election committee that year.

He had been expected to serve five years outright then. But amid huge debate and following a controversial intervention by Beijing, it was decided he would simply serve out the remainder of Tung's term.

Agence France-Presse