The pro-Beijing camp was heading for a comfortable majority in Hong Kong's next legislature, with a third of the results in today from the territory's first elections under Chinese rule.
Despite torrential rain and flooding in some areas, the turnout from yesterday's voting was a record for Hong Kong with 53.29 per cent of the registered electorate voting.
Despite a strong popular vote for the democrats in the 20 directly elected seats, the pro-Beijing lobby was always tipped to win the lion's share of the other 40 seats on the legislature which were elected by smaller special interest groups and an election committee.
All 10 seats returned by the 800member election committee in yesterday's polls, the first results to be announced, went to incumbent legislators, who had been handpicked to sit on the body following the end of British rule last year.
Another 10 candidates were elected unopposed to "functional constituency" seats, chosen by professional and business groups.
Topping the election committee poll was Ms Rita Fan, the president of the current mini-parliament.
"I feel very honoured," Ms Fan said after the results were announced. She said she would be happy to serve as president of the chamber again. "If they [the legislators] would like me to serve in that capacity I would be willing to do so."
A total of 30 places on the 60seat Legislative Council were chosen by the functional constituencies. The most successful party in the early running was the pro-Beijing Liberal Party, which garnered six of the first 20 seats to be announced.
But according to the exit polls, the Liberals were unable to pick up a single seat in the direct elections, with the party leader, Mr Allen Lee, among the political casualties.
The exit poll gave the Democratic Party, led by Mr Martin Lee, nine directly elected seats, with at least four more seats going to like-minded candidates.
The Democrats were estimated in the exit poll to have garnered over 50 per cent of the popular vote. They claim the electoral system was devised to prevent that support from translating into a majority in the legislature.
All the former Democratic legislators were kicked out of office at the handover of sovereignty last July.
Mr Lee said the vote was a mandate to push for full democracy for the territory.
A total of 1,489,705 people from the 2.8 million registered voters cast ballots, dwarfing all figures for direct elections under British rule which ended last year.
"We are indeed very pleased to see this very enthusiastic response," the Hong Kong Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa said.