HONG KONG (AFP) - Pro-democracy parties made smaller than expected gains in Hong Kong elections which were seen as a referendum on the territory's Beijing-backed rulers.
Democratic leaders expressed disappointment at their performance in Sunday's poll, despite securing a majority of the popular vote in an election marked by the highest-ever turnout in the former British colony.
The pro-democracy camp won a convincing 18 of the 30 legislative council seats which are chosen by the territory's 3.2 million voters, picking up 58.6 percent of ballots cast.
But pro-Beijing parties retained control of the council. The remaining 30 seats are reserved for so-called functional constituencies representing mainly the business community and chosen by just 200,000 voters.
The election was fought against the backdrop of increasingly vocal calls for full democracy in the territory and efforts by Beijing to dampen its political aspirations because of fears that a rush towards democracy would unsettle mainland China.
The pro-democracy camp in total secured 25 seats on the 60-seat council, up from the 22 it previously held but down on projections of 28 or 29.
Pro-Beijing parties and independents who normally support them held the remaining seats, apparently undermining the democracy camp's case that voters would punish leaders for ruling out fully democratic elections by 2007.
"I broke into tears" after hearing we had not won control, a defiant Yeung Sum, chairman of the pro-democracy camp's main organisation, the Democratic Party, told a press conference.
However Yeung remained defiant, calling the result a "big step forward" and saying some good had come from the election.
"(The result) simply demonstrated that the majority of the people decided that they still want democracy."
China, which regained the territory in 1997, hailed the polls as the "most democratic" in Hong Kong's history. It cautioned lawmakers to "be loyal to their vows and seriously carry out their work ... and bear in mind the overall and long-term interest of China as well as Hong Kong."
Beijing had tried to sway voters with economic incentives and patriotic events including a visit by the country's Olympic team.
Critics also claim it orchestrated a smear campaign involving allegations of sex and property scandals involving democrats.
The election was being seen as a referendum on the city's sentiment towards Beijing following 14 months of turmoil when the Chinese leadership was accused of interfering in the running of the city.
Hong Kong has been a largely self-governed region of China since 1997.
But China has adopted a more hands-on role since half a million people took to the streets on July 1 last year in protest at Beijing-backed plans to introduce a new security law.
Results were delayed when electoral officials ordered a recount of ballots cast on Hong Kong Island, following allegations by pro-democracy candidates that rules had been breached.
Activist said ballot boxes were illegally opened and some voters turned away from polling stations.
Analysts blamed the poorer than expected result on the democrats' poor election strategy.
"The deck is stacked against them," said Paul Harris, politics and government associate professor at Lingnan University. But he said parties had not used the complicated electoral system to their favour and had fielded the wrong combinations of candidates.
Some 55.6 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters turned out, the highest number of ballots cast in any election in Hong Kong.