Live | Carrie Lam wins Hong Kong chief executive election, with 777 votes
Former chief secretary becomes city’s first ever female leader
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has been elected Hong Kong’s next chief executive, becoming the city’s first female leader.
Lam, 59, won 777 votes from the 1,194-member Election Committee, composed mostly of Beijing loyalists. The former chief secretary beat former finance chief John Tsang Chun-wah and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.
Lam was widely seen as Beijing’s preferred candidate while Tsang was said to have lacked the central government’s full trust despite his high public popularity. For Woo, winning the race was seen as mission impossible.
The election committee members cast their votes between 9am and 11am on Sunday morning at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Most of the 326 pan-democrat members had pledged their support for the popular underdog Tsang.
