Hong Kong by-elections start

May 16, 2010 Hong Kong's by-elections, triggered by the resignation of five legislators,, , , , and , will take place today. The five legislators left the earlier this year in protest of the government's indifference towards  and the abolishment of functional constituencies.

The elections started at 07.30 local time (23.30 UTC) today, and are due to end at ten o'clock tonight. Results are expected to be released tomorrow morning.

Donald Tsang has decided not to vote. , who was in Shanghai, stated that "Donald Tsang will expound on his opinions".

Prominent politicians and  also refused to vote. The heads of the and  didn't cast their ballots either, the former going on a trip to avoid voting. Their abstention provoked the criticism of several pan-democrats, including.

As of 18.00 today (10.00 UTC), 405880 voters have voted. The percentage of registered voters who voted is 12.03%; The highest is, with 14.9%, while was the lowest, at 9.93%. Some members of the Pro-Beijing camp have also decided to vote for, a Hong Kong radio celebrity. Wong Yuk-man says he does not mind, for even a vote for his major opponent means a rise in the number of voters.