China's favourite wins strong backing in Hong Kong leadership race

The woman seen as China's favourite for Hong Kong's next leader formally registered Tuesday for the election in March after securing overwhelming initial backing, as pro-democracy protesters heckled her. Carrie Lam announced she had secured 579 nominations from a 1,200-strong mainly pro-Beijing election committee which will vote on March 26 for the next chief executive. This far outpaces two other candidates. Former financial secretary John Tsang, who has won support from some members of the pro-democracy camp, and ex-judge Woo Kwok-hing have secured 160 and 180 nominations respectively. Lam was deputy leader of the semi-autonomous Chinese city during mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014. Facing a second day of protests against her candidacy, she told reporters she would "use all my strength in speaking with people... regardless of whether they are pro-establishment or pro-democracy". Lam promoted a Beijing-backed political reform package rejected as a sham by the pro-democracy camp, which staged 79 days of mass rallies and road closures in late 2014. The protests ended without any concessions from the Chinese or Hong Kong governments. The package would for the first time have allowed Hong Kong people to directly elect their leader, but would have tightly controlled those eligible to stand. Lam was taunted Tuesday by around 20 protesters, some of whom called her a "running dog" of Beijing. "Have you received one nomination from pan-democracy figures?" one protester shouted through a loudspeaker, while others yelled: "I want real elections!" Would-be candidates must secure at least 150 nominations to contest the election.