Democracy alive in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Pro-democracy political parties in Hong Kong managed to ride out a rising tide of Olympics-inspired Chinese nationalism and popular concerns about inflation and the economy to emerge with enough strength in the legislative council to veto anti-democratic legislation.

Democratic parties, which campaign for greater political freedoms and the ‘one person, one vote’ principle, won 23 of 60 legislative seats in Sunday’s election, down from the 26 they held earlier. They had been expected to fare far worse, considering that voter turnout, at 45%, was the second lowest since 1997, when the territory reverted from British rule to China.

Only 30 legislative council seats are directly elected by the people; the rest are chosen by special interest groups that typically back the central government in Beijing, which disfavours an early transition to full democracy.

The democratic parties were on test because it was widely felt that Chinese nationalism, inspired by the mainland’s booming economy, would swamp any aspirations for political freedoms. In any case, China announced last year that the territory would not be able to elect its chief executive until 2017 at the earliest, or all of its legislators until 2020 or later.

Elated pro-democracy candidates said the results had sent a message to Beijing, whose actions of the past have given rise to concerns that it may push back the deadline for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.