HK leadership rivals clash ahead of ‘unfair’ vote

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s leadership candidates faced off in a live television debate on Tuesday as criticism mounts over an appointment process skewed towards Beijing, bypassing the vast majority of voters.

A committee of 1,194 mainly pro-establishment representatives from special interest groups will choose the next chief executive later this month in the first leadership vote since mass protests in 2014 failed to win political reform.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp heavily criticises the voting system as unfair and not reflective of public opinion.

There have also been allegations that Beijing is directly interfering in the process.

Some pro-establishment lawmakers have told how they have come under direct pressure to vote in favour of Hong Kong’s former deputy leader Carrie Lam, a hardliner widely seen as Beijing’s favoured candidate.