BBC News Online: Despatches

Controversial candidate wins Hongkong elections

The largest number of votes went to Jiang Enzhu, the head of the New China News Agency here and one of the mainland's top officials in Hong Kong. His suitability as a candidate has been questioned by pro-democracy groups, who say a mainland official is in no position to represent Hong Kong's interests.

Provisional legislator and head of the Liberal Party Alan Lee just made it onto the list of delegates. Fellow legislator David Chu narrowly failed to win a place.

For Hong Kong, this was a taste of mainland-style politics. The 424 members of the selection committee were all approved by Beijing and almost all the shortlisted candidates were themselves part of the selection committee.

A pre-selection vote on Saturday had given a strong indication of the likely delegates, and the final list showed little change. Laurence Leung, the former head of immigration, failed to become a delegate after his candidacy became embroiled in controversy.

Mr Leung was forced to retire from his post last year when questions were raised about his integrity.

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