March 26, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1428

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's China-backed leader Donald Tsang was awarded another term in office on Sunday when the handful of city elites allowed to vote easily re-elected him over a pro-democracy challenger. The 800 members of Hong Kong's election committee are the only people in this territory of nearly seven million people allowed to vote for the chief executive, and they gave Tsang a 649-123 win over Alan Leong, officials said.

But for the first time since Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the race for leader was contested. Leong had hoped his presence would help nudge Hong Kong down the road to full democracy. The 62-year-old Tsang, a career civil servant, turned up to vote in one of his trademark bow ties but refused to speak to reporters.

Governed by the rule of law and driven by the freest of free markets, Hong Kong has unique status in China -- a policy former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping described as “one country, two systems” when the 1997 handover took place.—AFP