AP, Hong Kong :
Hong Kong pro-democracy candidates won enough seats in a pivotal legislative election to retain veto power over the southern Chinese government’s proposals, setting the stage for a new round of political confrontations with Beijing, official results showed Monday.
The big winners included a group of young candidates who took part in massive 2014 pro-democracy street protests and are now seeking to change the way the city is governed by Beijing.
Pro-democracy candidates needed to secure at least 24 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council in order to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests.
Official results for most constituencies showed that they won at least 27 seats. Full final results are still to be announced.
Record turnout in Sunday’s vote helped sweep the newcomers into office, most notably Nathan Law, a 23-year-old former student protest leader, who garnered the second-highest number of votes in his six-seat Hong Kong Island constituency.
Law’s party, Demosisto, founded earlier this year with teen protest leader Joshua Wong, advocates a referendum on “self-determination” on the future status of Hong Kong, which is in the middle of a 50-year transition period to Chinese rule.
“It shows how Hong Kong people want to change,” Law told reporters when asked about his victory. “People are voting for a new way and new future of our democratic movement.”
Hong Kong pro-democracy candidates won enough seats in a pivotal legislative election to retain veto power over the southern Chinese government’s proposals, setting the stage for a new round of political confrontations with Beijing, official results showed Monday.
The big winners included a group of young candidates who took part in massive 2014 pro-democracy street protests and are now seeking to change the way the city is governed by Beijing.
Pro-democracy candidates needed to secure at least 24 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council in order to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests.
Official results for most constituencies showed that they won at least 27 seats. Full final results are still to be announced.
Record turnout in Sunday’s vote helped sweep the newcomers into office, most notably Nathan Law, a 23-year-old former student protest leader, who garnered the second-highest number of votes in his six-seat Hong Kong Island constituency.
Law’s party, Demosisto, founded earlier this year with teen protest leader Joshua Wong, advocates a referendum on “self-determination” on the future status of Hong Kong, which is in the middle of a 50-year transition period to Chinese rule.
“It shows how Hong Kong people want to change,” Law told reporters when asked about his victory. “People are voting for a new way and new future of our democratic movement.”
