भाद्र २४ गते, २०६९ मा प्रकाशित
HONG KONG – Hong Kong voters went to the polls in legislative elections seen as a crucial test for the Beijing-backed government, as calls for full democracy grow and disenchantment with Chinese rule surges.
Nearly 3.5 million people are eligible to cast ballots in the poll, which comes after weeks of protests against a plan to introduce Chinese patriotism classes into schools forced the government into a last-minute backdown on Saturday. The remainder of the seats are chosen by small groups of electors.
The new 70-seat legislature could pave the way for universal suffrage in 2017 for the job of chief executive and by 2020 for the parliament.
Forty of the 70 seats in the new legislature are directly elected – the first time that more than half of the seats up for grabs would be decided by popular vote.
The remainder are chosen by small groups of electors selected along economic and professional lines.
Besides the protests over education policy, tensions have been brewing over corruption, the yawning gap between rich and poor, soaring property prices and the strains of coping with an influx of millions of mainland tourists.
Besides the protests over the education policy, analysts say Hong Kong voters are also concerned about corruption, unemployment and the growing number of visitors from mainland China.
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