Hong Kong MPs vote against reform package

Hong Kong MPs have rejected a Beijing-backed electoral reform package derided as "fake democracy" during mass protests last year, leaving the city in deadlock over how its leader should be chosen.

The government's electoral roadmap would have given all residents the right to vote for the chief executive for the first time in 2017, but the candidates would be vetted by a Beijing loyalist committee.

In an unprecedented rebuke, the proposal was voted down by 28 votes to eight, with the majority of pro-government MPs walking out of the legislative chamber without casting their ballots as defeat loomed.

"This result is not what we want to see," Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said after the vote on Thursday.

The vote required support from two-thirds of the assembly's 70 MPs to pass.

Analysts say Beijing is unlikely to alter its stance on the vetting of candidates, and authorities in Hong Kong have said the political reform debate is now off the table for 2017.

That means the next chief executive will be chosen by a 1200-strong pro-Beijing committee, as was current leader, the unpopular Leung Chun-ying.

Pro-democrat MPs did not cast their defeat of the vote as a victory, and some said it was just the beginning of a long battle.

"Political reform may be in a deadlock for two or three years," Ivan Choy, a senior lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said.

Beijing has not made it clear how it will respond to what was a slap in the face for the mainland authorities.

About 100 pro-democracy supporters outside the legislature cheered at the vote on Thursday, punching the air and hugging each other as the result was broadcast live on a big screen.

"I'm excited!" said 30-year-old IT worker Ken Tsang.

"An undemocratic proposal should not be passed."