Pro-Beijing candidates shine in Hong Kong elections, claim victory

Pro-Beijing candidates have claimed a victory in Hong Kong's Legislative Council election, as the city saw its lowest-ever voter turnout with only 30.2% of voters participating amid wide apathy about the poll.

Sunday's election was the first since Beijing passed a 'patriots governing Hong Kong' resolution that fundamentally altered Legislative Council's composition in March this year and ensured that only those loyal to China can run.

The most important change was that it drastically shrank the proportion of lawmakers who can be directly voted in by the people - from 50% to 22%.

Under the new laws, all of the candidates had to be approved by the government before they could stand for election.

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The number of seats in the Legislative Council had also been increased to 90. Out of the total, only 20 were elected by voting. The other 70 were elected by business and social groups, and an election committee.

The semi-autonomous territory was rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2014 and 2019 that were crushed by the security forces, followed by the imposition of a sweeping national security law that silenced most of the city's opposition activists and led others to flee abroad.