CHINA:Hong Kong goes to the polls tomorrow to elect the chief executive of the former British colony. Or, more correctly, a panel of 796 electors will choose the Beijing-backed incumbent Donald Tsang as the territory's leader by secret ballot - the rest of Hong Kong's seven million people have no vote.
While he has no chance of winning, the election campaign has turned into a useful platform for the democratic challenger Alan Leong, of the newly formed Civic Party, to press his case for one person, one vote.
It is nearly 10 years since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule and Beijing has ruled out direct elections for Hong Kong in the near future. However, the territory's constitution, the Basic Law, does allow for a gradual move to universal suffrage, although there has been a lot of wrangling over the timetable.
Mr Leong has used the election campaign to try to put pressure on Mr Tsang into committing to push for direct elections by the time that the chief executive elections roll around again in five years. All Mr Tsang has said is that he will not rule it out. Mr Leong also did much to boost the profile of the democratic movement in two televised debates with Mr Tsang.
Last week, thousands of people marched through the city's city centre, calling for more democracy and criticising tomorrow's "small circle" election. Another Leong tactic has been to highlight some of the environmental destruction being wreaked on the city.