For details and serious background on this stuff, see this week's Economist which, as usual, covers the story well and succinctly.

Hong Kong has a relatively simple governmental structure. There's a Chief Executive, in effect a Prime Minister in the British sense, who appoints a 'cabinet' of secretaries, responsible for different fields of government. There's a single-house legislature, of which 50% is election and 50% is appointed, but it's a relatively toothless body anyway. The most interesting and powerful position, by far, is the CE. The CE is elected every 4 years or so, and the election is then confirmed by the government in Beijing, who technically then appoint the winner of the election as CE.

The current election is one of the finest pieces of satire I've seen in many years. When I say that the CE is elected, I mean that he (no chance of women being involved for a good while yet) is elected by an 'election committee' of 800 members, who represent the people of Hong Kong. When I say they represent, I mean that something like 250 of them are elected in a general election, and the rest come from various groups and are generally thought to be pretty much a rubber-stamp for the Beijing government's preferred candidate. When I say general election, I mean that something like 250,000 of Hong Kong's residents get to vote. So, around 250,000 of 7,000,000 people in Hong Kong get to vote for around 250 of 800 electors, who then elect the CE. What it means is that, given most of the 550 non-elected electors are assumed to vote for the central government's preferred candidate, the entire election is a sham and there's no real democracy being provided at all.

There has, however, been a real political upset in the current election - about the only possible upset in the system as it stands. The only loophole in the sham is that someone needs to show support from 100 of the 800 electors to be considered a candidate, and in previous elections, the situation has been than once 700 'nominations' were cast for a particularly candidate, he would win by default, since no other candidate could stand. What happened this time is that the various somewhat fractured pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong managed to hang together for the general election, and managed to get over 100 of their electors on the committee - meaning that there are actually two legal candidates for CE of Hong Kong in the election on Sunday. There is no doubt whatsoever what the result will be - Sir Donald Tsang will be (re-)elected for a full term, following the partial term he's completing.

So where does the satire come in? Well - it comes in because a lot of people have been behaving as if it was a real election, like the people had any say in the result, like the result wasn't already decided. Sir Donald - who doesn't like the title, picked up when he was a leading light in the former British administration in Hong Kong - has been running election posters, proclaiming that "[He]'ll get the job done!". There have been a couple of televised debates. There was a vote-winning budget announced a couple of weeks ago, complete with salary and property tax refunds and a cut in alcohol taxes. I've got a photo of a polling station from the general election held back in December, which is funny, because it looks so much like a UK general election station, but has very little to do with electing the CE. The whole thing is - to my eyes, used to seeing irony - a grand piece of satire, and I'm really impressed at how many people have managed to keep a straight face while pulling it off.

The silly thing, of course, is that Hong Kong is doing pretty well, and it's widely considered that Sir Donald would win an open election anyway, probably by a very significant amount. There's been some pretty strong pushing towards universal suffrage over the past year or two, and it's likely to continue, but at the moment, people on the street, as a whole, aren't too bothered to be living in a territory with a form of democracy so weak that it can only be laughed at. A lot depends on the economy - when people's wallets are full, they don't march - and there's a general feeling that the issue will be dealt with sooner or later. For now, I'm pleased to say that I've been here long enough that I'm starting to understand and appreciate the local sense of humour! Unless, of course, the whole thing isn't really a joke...