March 26 (UPI) — A committee in Hong Kong elected Carrie Lam as the city’s first female chief executive Sunday.
Lam, the former No. 2 official in the city, received 777 votes from a 1,194-member committee to become the city’s fourth leader in the 20 years since Britain returned the city to Chinese rule in an arrangement known as “one country, two systems.” The committee of mainly business and political leaders with ties to Beijing selected the chief executive to lead a city of 7.3 million people.
The election drew about 300 protesters outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
“China promised that Hong Kong people would run Hong Kong,” Mabel Yau, 52, one of protesters outside the voting site, told The New York Times. “Today, only 1,200 people are representing us in electing the chief executive. Is it fair?”
Lam — the chief secretary — was backed by Leung Chun-ying, the unpopular departing chief executive.
“Hong Kong, our home, is suffering from quite a lot of divisiveness,” Lam said in a speech after the vote. “I heard so much more from peoples’ hearts and learned and experienced many new things as well as different angles to things. I see my shortcomings and understand that I must put in more efforts.”
In 2014, Lam led the failed effort to let Hong Kong choose the chief executive by direct popular vote. Under that plan, China would have screened the candidates. The local legislature rejected the proposal.
The Umbrella Movement shut down parts of the city for several months in protest of not getting the right to vote for the chief executive.
“When the No. 2 official becomes the No. 1, there isn’t going to be much change,” said Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of those protests told The New York Times. “‘One country, two systems’ is going down the drain, and our high degree of autonomy will exist in name only.”
Lam, who will take over July 1, said she will “have no fears” to defend Hong Kong’s interests against Beijing.
“I too want more democracy in Hong Kong. But Hong Kong is facing a lot of problems. Why don’t we start with the easier subjects first?” she said.
In the election, former Financial Secretary John Tsang was backed by pro-democracy members on the committee and he received 365 votes. Retired Judge Woo Kwok-hing, the other candidate, had 21 votes.
Thirty-one votes were not cast, including a few lawmakers who favor self-determination for Hong Kong that spoiled their ballots as a protest at the “small circle election.”
“It shows how ridiculous our system is,” Eric Cheung, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, told CNN. “Opinion polls showed that John Tsang was more popular with the people … but under our system, so long as the message is clear from Beijing, then the pro-establishment camp will [follow it].”
