Hong Kong Chooses Carrie Lam as Next Leader Sunday March 26,2017

 

A Beijing-backed civil servant, Carrie Lam, was chosen to be Hong Kong's next leader on Sunday March 26,2017 amid accusations that Beijing is meddling and denying the financial hub a more populist leader perhaps better able to defuse political tension.

The majority of the China-ruled city's 7.3 million people have no say in deciding their leader, who is chosen from among several candidates by a 1,200-person "election committee" stacked with pro-Beijing and pro-establishment loyalists.

Carrie Lam, who will become Hong Kong's first female chief executive when she takes office on July 1, won 777 votes compared with 365 for her closest rival, former financial secretary John Tsang, who polls show is more popular.

Hong Kong's new chief executive Carrie Lam (centre) waves while her defeated opponents Woo Kwok-hing (right) and John Tsang (left) look on after winning the Hong Kong chief executive election in Hong Kong