Nearly 600,000 vote in Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries

Hundreds of thousands of people cast their votes over the weekend in Hong Kong in an attempt to narrow the field for pro-democracy candidates in this September's Legislative Council elections.

Organisers said Sunday that nearly 600,000 people voted at polling booths set up across the city, exceeding estimates of a turnout of 170,000.

The poll was presented as a "primary" vote to enhance coordination among disparate pro-democracy groups and to try to demonstrate that Hong Kong people would like a say in how their hometown is run.

The primaries were held two weeks after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous territory in a move widely seen as chipping away at the “one country, two systems” framework under which Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997.

It was passed in response to last year’s massive protests calling for greater democracy and more police accountability.

But this primary selection process does not mean that candidates will be able to stand.

In recent years, Hong Kong authorities have started to use an obscure bureaucratic position called the "returning officer" to disqualify candidates from standing for election.

So far, all the candidates disqualified have been government opponents.

No government supporters have been disqualified.

Pro-democracy politicians and activists have arranged hundreds of polling stations around Hong Kong's five main districts.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, which includes multiple parties, is attempting to join forces and use the primaries as a guide to field the best candidates in the official legislative election in September.

The goal is to win a majority in the legislature, which is typically skewed toward the pro-Beijing camp.