Hong Kong democrats are believed to have made gains in legislative elections Sunday considered a test of sentiment towards the city's rulers in Beijing and support for democratic reform.
An hour after ballots closed, exit polls suggested the pro-democracy camp, which is campaigning for universal suffrage, had gained three or four seats in the 60-seat Legislative Council, increasing its presence in the chamber to 2.
The party had hoped to win up to six more seats. Parties sympathetic to the city's authoritarian rulers in Beijing are believed to have maintained their hold on the legislature with two gained seats.
The results disappointed the pro-democracy movement's figurehead Martin Lee.
"I am not happy with that," a terse Lee told AFP of the exit poll predictions.
Colleague Fred Li, a senior Democratic Party strategist, called the exit poll results shocking.
"I am shocked (pro-Beijing parties) won two more seats. This is very disappointing."
Democrats have been waging a war of words with Beijing over the timing of electoral reforms since the city switched from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Pollsters believe the turnout Sunday broke local election records, exceeding the more than 53 percent who voted in 1998.
The city's 501 polling stations opened at 7:30 am (2330 GMT) Sunday and closed at 10:30 pm.
When an hour of polling was left, 1.56 million voters, or 48.8 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters, had cast their ballots, government pollsters said.
This was higher than the 1.18 million votes cast at the same time in the last election, in 2000.
Voting was so brisk that ballot boxes in some polling stations had been filled within eight hours of polling, creating queues of electors outside waiting for new boxes to be brought in.
Surveys ahead of the polls had forecast a turnout of about 60 percent, or 1.9 million electors. Analysts say a higher turnout would have benefited pro-democracy candidates.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, the first government official to cast his vote, braved about a dozen pro-democracy protesters shouting anti-government slogans and calling for him to step down.