Beijing denies this, and gave no concessions to the protesters.
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It saw the emergence of young campaigners demanding outright independence for Hong Kong – a subject previously taboo.
It is the first taste of real political power for the young protest leaders.
Before nomination for the election, Hong Kong’s Electoral Affairs Commission demanded that all the candidates must endorse a statement promising to support the Hong Kong Basic Law and be loyal to the Hong Kong SAR.
If the democrats lose just four seats overall, they will forfeit the one-third voting bloc they need to veto bills, stacking the already skewed legislature even more in favour of Beijing.
“Hong Kong is really chaotic now”. Some pro-independence candidates were disqualified from running for failing to sign the pledge.
Future moves supporting Hong Kong’s independence would violate China’s constitution and should be quickly punished by Hong Kong authorities “under the law”, the spokesman said. Try to unite different camps because as you can see I still believe that we have to be united in order to have a stronger power to fight against the Communist Party. Those seats go predominantly to pro-Beijing candidates.
Some of the leaders from the landmark 2014 “Umbrella Revolution” protests in Hong Kong are set to take seats in the Legislative Council after a historic win in the recently-held election in the territory.
Results as of 5:30am local time showed victories for some young “localist” activists who are pushing for more distance or complete independence from China.
The Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-Yan was ousted from his New Territories West seat after more than 20 years.
However, some localists who were allowed to take part continued to call for independence on the campaign trail.
It was especially hard for any pro-independence candidate to win because the Chinese government forced all candidates to sign a pledge accepting that Hong Kong belonged to China.
Pro-independence candidates have so far dominated the landmark election, the results of which isn’t expected until later today, after several hours of delay due to an unprecedented turnout.
The vote for Legislative Council lawmakers will test the unity of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, with a new generation of radical activists joining the race after emerging in the wake of 2014 pro-democracy street protests.
“People want change, change meaning that they want new faces. but the price is a further fragmentation [of the democracy camp]”. The public directly elects only half of the 70 lawmakers, who are known as the geographic constituency.
Results were delayed by a record voter turnout, which saw some 58% of 3.8 million registered voters queue up, compared with 45.2% in 2008. The central government has reportedly likened pro-independence Hong Kongers to separatists in Tibet and Taiwan.
Pro-democracy legislatures took 19 out of the 35 seats that were up for grabs in the election, giving them 30 total seats in the 70-member LegCo.
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According to Chang, this postmaterialism is manifesting itself in greater nationalism, more willingness among young people to embrace their cultural identity, and a keen interest in environmental issues.
