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HONG KONG: Hong Kong's pro-democracy parties won more than one third of seats in weekend elections, retaining the key power to veto legislation in the city's legislature.

The groups won 23 of the 60 seats up for grabs in the Legislative Council, results showed today, following the poll billed as a key test for pro-democracy parties in the former British colony in the face of growing Chinese patriotism. The parties had expressed fears they would slip below the crucial number of 21 seats - losing the ability to veto government legislation, which they successfully used in 2005 to block controversial constitutional reforms. Hong Kong was promised universal suffrage for both its legislature and chief executive when Britain handed back the territory to China in 1997, but no specific timetable was set. Only 30 of the 60 legislative seats were being chosen by the city's 3.37 million registered electors in yesterday's poll. The remaining 30 “functional constituencies&rdquo...

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