Career civil servant Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) was declared the winner of Hong Kong's race for chief executive yesterday, but he received few congratulations from editorial writers, who accused him of arrogantly steamrolling his rivals in an undemocratic campaign.
Tsang snapped up about 85 percent of the nominations from a 796-member election committee that picks the leaders in the territory. The election panel is dominated by members partial to Beijing.
Hong Kong officials certified Tsang's win yesterday, and China's State Council was expected to give its final approval next week.
Tsang sealed his victory on Wednesday, after handing in election papers showing he had more than 700 nominations from the election committee.
An editorial in the Apple Daily newspaper complained that Hong Kong's leadership elections were just like those in the communist mainland.
"Everyone knows that in `elections' on the mainland, especially ones for party and government leaders, the winner is known before the election begins," it said.
"And in Hong Kong ... everyone also knows who's going to win before the vote," it said.
Tsang had acknowledged on Wednesday that the system was imperfect, and that Hong Kong's ultimate goal was to have direct public votes. But he said the election committee represented a broad cross-section of society -- including the social welfare, healthcare, education and business sectors.
Tsang also noted that opinion polls consistently reported that his support was in the high 70 percentile range, close to his share of nominations from the election committee.
But an editorial in the Ming Pao daily said, "The public has complex and conflicting feelings about this election."
It said people are pleased to have a leader with strong experience managing the government. Tsang has spent the past 38 years in public service, while his unpopular predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), was a shipping tycoon with little political background.
But it said that during Tsang's two-week campaign, he did not live up to his pledge to reach out to the public without focusing only on the election committee.
He was also criticized for repeatedly refusing to debate his rivals, legislators Lee Wing-tat (李永達) and Chim Pui-chung (詹培忠).
"Hong Kong's public had high hopes for Donald Tsang," the Ming Pao said.
"That's why in the past two weeks, when everyone saw him show his arrogant and stubborn side, they felt disappointed," it said.
The South China Morning Post called the race a "disappointment." Its editorial noted that all the election committee members' nominations were made public, which made members susceptible to pressure from Beijing.
The Hong Kong Economic Journal called the race a "small circle" election that ignored realities and "created a shadow over Donald Tsang as he starts his term."
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