Pro-Beijing party wins big in Hong Kong election

HONG KONG, Hong Kong's pro-Beijing DAB party was the big winner on Monday in the city's four-yearly district council elections, a showing that could hurt the rival pro-democracy camp's prospects in legislative polls ahead.

Though district councillors wield little real power, the polls were the most fiercely contested one since Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997, with the two sides keen to crack up momentum ahead of the legislative elections next year. The pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps have also locked horns over constitutional reforms which are aimed at full democracy with Beijing's approval.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) said it had secured 115 of around 400 district council seats. The Democratic Party won 59 seats, far fewer than expected. Voting ended late on Sunday.

The strong showing by the DAB represents a marked comeback against the pro-democracy camp, which had swept the previous district polls in 2003 with around 140 seats.

"We admit that this is a serious setback," said Democratic Party Chairman Albert Ho on Hong Kong's Cable Television.

In 2003, analysts said a massive half million strong anti-government protest on July 1, ahead of the polls, had given the democrats a massive and unexpected shot in the arm.

But this year, the Democrat's lacklustre grassroots work, a recovering economy and sagging public interest in ongoing constitutional reforms aimed at achieving full democracy may have helped the DAB.

"Last time, political topics were rather strong, but for district councils, livelihood issues are most important and the DAB has traditionally been strong in district work, and this has been welcomed by the public," Lau Kong-wah, a DAB Vice-Chairman and legislator told reporters early on Monday morning.

While the pro-democracy camp had some isolated successes including in the affluent Peak district the poor showing caused Frederick Fung, the head of one of its allies, the ADPL party to step down.

"This is really a bad day for the Democrats ... It will help the DAB to win next year's legislative council election, the political climate favours them," said City University political analyst James Sung.

Hong Kong, Monday, Reuters