The IHT reports:

A sweeping victory by a popular figurehead of the democracy movement in an election for a legislative seat here has lifted the fortunes of democrats in Hong Kong, but they still face a significant struggle to win the early introduction of promised democratic reforms, analysts said Monday.

In one of the most fiercely contested and symbolic elections since China assumed control of Hong Kong a decade ago, Anson Chan, a 67-year-old former leader of the civil service, won a seat in the Legislative Council by a decisive margin Sunday, on a platform that called for full democratic rights to be granted to voters of the former British colony within five years.

Chan, whose service as chief secretary straddled the last years of British rule and the early years of Chinese rule, won 54.6 percent of the 321,938 votes cast, according to official results announced early Monday.

Her main rival, Regina Ip, 57, who oversaw an attempt to introduce a deeply unpopular anti-subversion law as security secretary of Hong Kong in 2003, won 42.7 percent of the vote. Although both candidates contested the election as independents, Chan was supported by a coalition of democratic parties. Ip was supported by pro-Beijing parties.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/03/asia/hong.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert#end_main