HONG KONG: Hong Kong's chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying got down to business Monday after winning the most divisive leadership election the city has seen since the 1997 handover to China.
He appointed members of his media team and promised a smooth transition from the administration of outgoing Chief Executive Donald Tsang, the bow-tie wearing career bureaucrat whose term expires in June.
"The office of the chief executive elect sprang into action shortly after the result of the election was announced," Leung told a press conference with Tsang a day after being anointed as leader by the city's elite.
"I will work very hard to ensure in the next few months the transition works well."
Leung, 57, garnered 689 of the votes from the 1,200-strong election committee, which is heavily stacked with pro-Beijing tycoons and members of the political class.
He promised to "reunite"Hong Kongand protect its "rights and freedoms" following an election which split the city's establishment camp and forcedBeijingto heed popular opinion as never before.
Pro-democracy protesters condemned the election as a farce and demanded full suffrage for the semi-autonomous former British colony of seven million people, which is ruled byBeijingaccording to the One Country Two Systems principle.
"The election process was smooth and it underlines the success of One Country, Two Systems, andHong Kongpeople runningHong Kong," said Tsang, whose public approval ratings are low after seven years in office.
"It is also an important milestone in our constitutional development," he added, calling on Hong Kongers to "rally around" Leung as only the city's third post-handover chief executive.
A policeman's son turned self-made property guru and veteran government adviser, Leung is nicknamed "The Wolf" due to perceptions of his ruthless cunning and intelligence.
He lived up to his wily reputation throughout the election campaign, which he began as a rank outsider compared to Henry Tang, the son of a textile tycoon whom most believed hadBeijing's blessing to walk into the leadership job.
But Tang's campaign imploded in scandals including a confession of marital infidelity and the discovery of an illegal entertainment suite at his luxury home.
This left Leung the next-best choice forBeijingdespite reservations from the city's business elite about his populist promises to address soaring property prices, and persistent rumours that he is a secret communist.
Observers said that with only 58 percent of the election committee's vote, the man commonly known as CY could not rest on his laurels.
"The immediate challenge facing Leung is daunting. He has to bridge an unprecedented political divide arising from the cut-throat race between the two pro-establishment camps," the South China Morning Post wrote in an editorial.
It noted that he received only 17.8 percent of the vote in a mock election by theUniversityofHong Kongon Saturday. More than half of the 223,000 voters rejected all the candidates and returned blank ballots.
"Had there been a popular vote, it would have been inconclusive," the Post said, calling Leung the "weakest leader-in-waiting" the city had seen since 1997.