Hong Kong leader casts ballot in first parliamentary vote since electoral reform: Reports

Hong Kong, December 19 (ANI/Sputnik): Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam cast her vote in Sunday elections to the Legislative Council, the first ones since the autonomous city had its electoral system massively overhauled, and called on citizens to vote actively, Chinese media reported.
Polling stations opened at 8.30 am (00:30 GMT), and citizens will be able to vote until 10.30 pm.
Lam cast her ballot at 09:00 a.m. at the Raimondi College polling station, according to the Xinhua news agency.
"I hope this election will be fair, just, open, clean and efficient," Lam said, as quoted by the media, adding that Hong Kongers should vote actively to fulfill their civic duty.
A special committee approved applications from 153 candidates, who will compete for 90 seats in the parliament. Twenty representatives will be elected by direct vote and another 30 by business groupings. The remaining 40 seats will be taken up by members of the Election Committee. Before the reform, the council had 70 seats. Representatives of opposition parties do not participate in the elections, for the first time too.
This past March, the Chinese parliament passed the reform plan for the Hong Kong electoral system, changing the procedures for electing the head of the city administration and forming the legislative body. China stated that matters relating to Hong Kong are an internal affair and warned against external pressure, when Western countries expressed their concern about Hong Kong's independence amid the reform. (ANI/Sputnik)