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Hong Kong picks new leader in hard-fought poll

24 March 2012 23:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hong Kong picks its new leader Sunday as the city’s elites decide between two pro-Beijing candidates for the top job after weeks of intense campaigning defined by unprecedented mudslinging, APA reports quoting AFP.

The overwhelming majority of Hong Kong’s seven million residents have no right to vote, in a "small circle" poll that will be decided by a 1,200-member election committee packed with pro-Beijing social and business elites.

Former government adviser Leung Chun-ying, widely seen as China’s preferred choice, is tipped to beat his main rival Henry Tang after Leung’s campaign was boosted by the support of the city’s biggest pro-Beijing party.

Polling will open at 9am (0100 GMT) for two hours, with results expected around 12.30pm (0430 GMT), according to the city’s electoral affairs commission, which runs the poll.

Election committee members, which include Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing who backs Tang, will cast their vote through paper ballots.

To win, a candidate must secure at least 601 votes -- or over half the votes -- and if two rounds of voting fail to produce a winner, a fresh election will be scheduled for May.

Tang, the heir to a textile fortune and the city government’s former Number Two was believed to have Beijing’s backing until a series of personal scandals and gaffes reportedly prompted a shift in support to Leung.

Leung, a policeman’s son, has also come under media scrutiny and faced claims he has links to triad figures and harbours a secret communist agenda -- allegations he denies.

Leung has consistently ranked ahead of Tang in public opinion polls, which count for little under the current system that critics say is weighed in favour of the city’s China-backed tycoons.

Analysts say a third candidate, democracy campaigner Albert Ho, is unlikely to win.

Beijing has not openly backed any candidate but Premier Wen Jiabao has said the next chief executive must command the support of the "vast majority" of Hong Kong people.

The election has been complicated by the behind-the-scenes machinations of mainland China’s own once-in-a-decade leadership struggle, with various factions seeking to flex their muscles ahead of the transition later this year.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected to rally outside the polling station at the city’s harbourside convention centre as the poll is carried out to press for universal suffrage.

Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control from British rule in 1997, with a semi-autonomous status that guarantees broad social freedoms under limited democracy.

Beijing has said that, at the earliest, the city’s chief executive could be directly elected in 2017 and the legislature by 2020.

The new chief executive -- the third post-handover leader -- will replace current Chief Executive Donald Tsang, known for his colourful bow ties, whose term ends in June.