“Fewer than 5,000 Hong Kong people from mostly pro-establishment circles began voting on Sunday for candidates to an election committee, vetted as loyal to Beijing, who will pick the city’s next China-backed leader and some of its legislature. Pro-democracy candidates are nearly absent from Hong Kong’s first election since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to ensure that ‘only patriots’ rule China’s freest city. ‘The whole objective of improving the electoral system is to ensure patriots administer Hong Kong,’ Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said on Sunday morning. ‘I doubt very much that another government or country will allow the public election to their local legislature of people whose mission is to undermine the national interest or national security.’ The election committee will select 40 seats in the revamped Legislative Council in December, and choose a chief executive in March” – Reuters.