Hong Kong legislators vote down election plan for chief executive

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislators voted to reject an election plan on Thursday that would establish popular elections for the territory’s chief executive but allow Beijing to vet the candidates, The New York Times reported. While only 28 legislators voted against the plan – enough to veto it in any case – only eight pro-Beijing lawmakers voted for the proposal after the vast majority of that bloc left the chamber, having failed to realize that a bid to delay the decision by 15 minutes had failed because it was proposed after voting had already begun. Under the current process, a non-representative 1,200-member committee chooses the executive.