Hong Kong, 25 March, 2012: Mr. CY Leung was elected as Hong Kong's new Chief Executive     Hong Kong does not have a Prime Minister or a President as a Head of State- but a 'Chief Executive'. Rather than an election where people vote, in Hong Kong, the Chief's position is elected by an election committee.   It was an interesting selection because of three reasons:

1. The Chinese government did not support him in the beginning
2. His was running against Mr. Henry Tang, about whom a lot of bad news was published recently
3. Mr. Henry Tang was more influential compared to him

This was an 'elite' election- which means, it was managed by a group of rich and powerful people. CY Leung was elected by a committee of 1,200 business leaders and other prominent citizens. These people are loyal to Chinese government. All this while, China showed favor for Mr. Tang. But after there was a lot of news about his scandals, everyone seems to have changed sides. Who got the votes? Mr Leung is a 57-year-old self-made businessman. Mr Leung has told newspaper reporters that he would work hard to “get rid of people's negative perception about this election”. He is also the son of a policeman. He won 689 votes, while Mr Tang won 285 votes only. The third contestant was Mr Albert Ho, who won 76 votes. Mr Albert Ho is said to be in favor of Hong Kong becoming a complete democracy. This means Hong Kong will not have a committee that decides its leader. Instead, they will have elections where the general public can vote to decide their leader. For members of Whiz Times (also called Whizkers)- we'll soon have a interesting article on different type of government systems- like Democracy, Dictatorship, and other forms) How does Hong Kong run? Hong Kong is a city state that runs independently. This is a young state because it got independence from British rule only in 1997. Some people in Hong Kong want democracy and want their leaders to be elected by the people. Hong Kong has 7.1 million residents who will be able to elect their own leader if democracy sets into Hong Kong. China, the country that effectively has controlling power of Hong Kong- has promised that the people of Hong Kong will be able to vote in 2017- and elect their own leaders Hong Kong is a small but very important country. It has had years of great growth - and is considered an economical powerhouse. It is also called the Gateway to China because of its closeness to China, its similarity to China but with multi-cultural and relatively open culture and business environment.