Hong Kong went to the polls to elect a new legislature on Sunday, following major protests that have underlined growing anger and unease over perceived meddling from Beijing.

1. Moral Wide Limited: Hong Kong
goes to polls amid unease over
Beijing protests

2. Hong Kong went to the polls to elect a new
legislature on Sunday, following major protests
that have underlined growing anger and
unease over perceived meddling from Beijing.

3. A man stands next to banners promoting candidates running the
legislative elections outside a public housing estate in Hong Kong

4. • Over 3.4 million voters registered voters will elect 40 members of
Hong Kong's 70-seat Legislative Council, known as the 'LegCo'.
• Pro-democracy candidates and campaigners say the vote is crucial
to the former British colony's future, possibly influencing whether
universal suffrage is brought in for the 2017 election for chief
executive and the 2020 parliamentary elections.
• Sunday's ballot came on the heels of 10-days of mass protests over
highly contentious plans by Beijing to introduce compulsory lessons
in "moral and national education" to Hong Kong's classrooms.
• This week, tens of thousands of protesters encircled Hong Kong's
government headquarters to denounce the plans for "patriotic"
education. Opponents claimed the classes were an attempt to
"brainwash" students by airbrushing events such as the Tiananmen
Square crackdown from history and instead promoting the benefits
of one-party rule.
• Polls opened in Hong Kong at 7.30am local time and closed at
10.30pm. Results are expected on Monday.

5. • On Saturday, apparently fearful that ongoing protests might
damage the prospects of pro-Beijing candidates, Hong Kong's chief
executive, CY Leung, backed away from plans to make the classes
compulsory by 2016.
• "The schools are given the authority to decide when and how they
would like to introduce the moral and national education," Mr
Leung, who came to power in March and is backed by Beijing,
announced at a press conference.
• Professor Willy Lam, a China expert from the Chinese University of
Hong Kong, said the U-turn was an attempt to shore up support for
"establishment candidates".
• "It was a strategic retreat bearing in mind the elections today
because if he were to hang on to the original decision I think the
pro-Beijing establishment candidates might suffer."

6. • Attempts to alter Hong Kong's curriculum are just the latest in a slew of
controversial issues that have underlined growing nervousness and
discontent at Beijing's role in the semi-autonomous territory.
• Recent polls suggest local dissatisfaction with Beijing is now at its highest
levels since Hong Kong's 1997 handover.
• Among other topics causing friction are rocketing property prices, which
many Hong Kongers blame on an influx of wealthy mainland buyers, and
the strain placed on Hong Kong's health care system by expectant Chinese
mothers crossing the border to give birth.
• "This revolt against national education is just a symbol of the overall revolt
over the imposition of Chinese values," said Prof Lam.
• "Fifteen years after the reversion of Hong Kong to Beijing we have
witnessed, from around 2003 onwards, a more obvious tendency for
Beijing and its office in Hong Kong – the Central Liaison Office – [to
interfere] in entirely domestic issues in a more overt and blatant manner.
And CY Leung is widely perceived, I think, as a 'Yes Man' as far as Beijing's
instructions are concerned."

7. • "The election will gauge the extent to which people are unhappy
about this situation," Prof. Lam added.
• On the eve of Sunday's vote, student protesters vowed to resist
Beijing's push into the former British colony.
• "The government cannot do whatever it wants," Joshua Wong Chi-
fung, a student leader, told the South China Morning Post. "Hong
Kong people will fight for their rights on their soil. Hong Kong will
win. This movement will not fail."
• Writing in the same newspaper, commentator Philip Bowring urged
voters to reject pro-establishment candidates "[who] will ultimately
always put the party's interest, and that of Beijing, before their
proclaimed commitment to democracy." "In the end, the pro-
government camp will keep control of the legislature but it matters
a lot who and how many other voices are heard."