Beijing favorite wins Hong Kong election HONG KONG, March 25 (UPI) -- Protests swept Hong Kong Sunday after election officials said a candidate closely aligned with communists in Beijing had won the top administrative position. The vote for the city of 7 million people's chief executive position was won by 57-year-old Leung Chun-ying, the Financial Times reported. The election wasn't for citizens, but rather for 1,132 members of the city's election committee, which is composed of business leaders and the "elite" of the Chinese Communist party, the Times said. Leung took 61 percent of the vote, the report said. As soon as the announcement was made, pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chanting "Democracy is dead," the protesters undertook a Chinese funeral custom of throwing paper money into the air, the Journal said. China's state news agency Xinhua said Beijing sent congratulations to Leung for winning leadership of Hong Kong, which is deemed to be a Special Administrative Region. The city was a British colony until 1997.