Hong Kong legislative council election results

The results of the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections have seen the "pro-democracy" bloc win more votes than the "pro-Beijing" bloc.

The parties considered liberal and pro-democratic - the Democratic Party, the Civic Party, the League of Social Democrats and others - have polled about 57% of the votes cast. This has enabled them to get 19 of the 30 geographical seats in the Legislative Council. These seats are elected by universal suffrage based on party-list PR.

The pro-Beijing parties - led by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong - won about 40%. This got them 11 directly elected seats.

However, the Hong Kong Legislative Council has 30 functional seats - elected by various industry and professional groups. These seats went overwhelmingly to the pro-China bloc. They got 24 of these seats and the parties seen as pro-democratic got only 4.

The pro-Beijing bloc can thus count on 35 seats out of the 60 in the Legislative Council. This will mean that they will go along with what the Chief Executive and the government in Beijing want. Even if the pro-democracy bloc had won an absolute majority of seats in the Council, it is far from clear what approach they could have taken. The Chief Executive would still be in post and it is he who is the major font of power in Hong Kong.