Carrie Lam, the candidate most favoured by the mainland Chinese government, has become Hong Kong's new chief executive. The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that guarantees universal suffrage for its 1.3 million citizens. Hong Kong's chief executive is not selected through a public vote, but by a committee of 1,200 electors who are largely pro-Beijing. But overall the line-up of voters Sunday morning shaking hands with the candidates captured the common complaint that Hong Kong’s tiny circle of electors in the leadership “The election committee result is one that is directly contradictory to the majority public opinion of the Hong Kong people", said Dennis Kwok, a lawmaker and member of democracy advocacy group the Civic Party.
Carrie Lam, the candidate most favoured by the mainland Chinese government, has become Hong Kong's new chief executive. The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that guarantees universal suffrage for its 1.3 million citizens. Hong Kong's chief executive is not selected through a public vote, but by a committee of 1,200 electors who are largely pro-Beijing. “The election committee result is one that is directly contradictory to the majority public opinion of the Hong Kong people", said Dennis Kwok, a lawmaker and member of democracy advocacy group the Civic Party.