Democracy advocates lose 3 seats

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians lost three legislative seats but held on to their key veto power over major legislation as they push for greater political freedoms in the Chinese territory.

Democratic parties claimed 23 of 60 seats, down from their current count of 26. Ordinary citizens vote for 30 of the seats, while the rest are chosen by special-interest groups that tend to side with the central government in Beijing.

China announced last year that the territory would not be able to elect its own leader until 2017 at the earliest, or all of its legislators until 2020 or later.