Hong Kong votes in key elections

Hong Kong voters went to the polls in legislative elections seen as a crucial test for the Beijing-backed government, as calls for full democracy grow and disenchantment with Chinese rule surges.

Nearly 3.5 million people are eligible to cast ballots in the poll, which comes after weeks of protests against a plan to introduce Chinese patriotism classes into schools forced the government into a last-minute backdown on Saturday.

Voting began at 7:30am and would go on until 10:30pm with results not expected until Monday.

The poll comes a day after the government scrapped plans for mandatory Chinese patriotism lessons in schools.

For the first time, 40 of the 70 seats on the governing legislative council will be directly elected.

The results of the poll could keep on track plans for universal suffrage, which could come as early as 2017.

But for the promised reform to be implemented, it needs the support of the legislative council.

The election campaign has been dominated by issues such as employment, corruption and the growing number of visitors from mainland China.

Hong Kong, which was handed to China by Britain in 1997, enjoys greater political freedom than mainland China, including a free press and the right to peaceful assembly.

Under the current laws, 30 of the 70 seats in the assembly are being chosen by small group of electors selected along economic and professional lines.

Besides the protests over education policy, tensions have been brewing over corruption, the yawning gap between rich and poor, soaring property prices and the strains of coping with an influx of millions of mainland tourists.

Surveys show dissatisfaction with mainland rule is rising sharply, especially among the young, and analysts are expecting one of the highest turnouts of any election in the former British colony.

he U-turn on education was a major victory for people-power in a city that was ruled as a colony of Britain until 1997, when it was handed back to China as a semi-autonomous territory with broad rights and freedoms.

Organisers said protests outside the government headquarters swelled to 120,000 people, mainly students and parents, on Friday, and 100,000 people on the eve of the elections. Police put the number at 27,500 on Saturday evening.

Critics of the plan said it amounted to brainwashing, citing state-funded course materials praising the benefits of one-party rule.

Pro-democracy parties were using the education furore to galvanise their supporters, hoping to boost their representation.

But democracy activists fear Beijing will try to screen the candidates that people can vote for in the future, to ensure the city does not elect a government hostile to communist rule on the mainland.