Hong Kong voters voted today in the specially administered Chinese city’s most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997.
The outcome could pave the way for a fresh round of political confrontations over China’s control of the city.
The vote is for a 70-seat legislative council in which Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition is hoping to maintain a one-third veto bloc in the face of better mobilized and funded pro-Beijing rivals.
Hong Kong, the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement that promised to maintain the global financial hub’s freedoms and separate laws for at least 50 years, but gave ultimate control to Beijing.
