HONG KONG, Hong Kong on Friday passed a package of democratic reforms that stops well short of a one person, one vote system for the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Lawmakers voted in favour of the more contentious part of the package, which will see 10 directly-elected seats added to the legislature in 2012, after an unprecedented split between moderates and hardliners in the pro-democracy camp.

Radical democrats condemned moderates in the Democratic Party -- which held the swing vote on the reform -- claiming they had betrayed Hong Kong by giving up on their fight for universal suffrage in 2012.

"Today is the darkest day for the democratic development of Hong Kong," Albert Chan, lawmaker of the more radical League of Social Democrats, shouted in the legislature chambers after the passage was announced.

Scores of police officers surrounded the Legislative Council building behind layers of barricades, after some angry pro-democracy activists tried to break through the cordon on Thursday.

Stephen Lam, secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, told lawmakers the passage of the package was a big but difficult step for Hong Kong.

"To arrive at where we are today is not easy," he said.

In a U-turn on Monday, the government -- with the endorsement of Beijing -- said all 10 new seats that it proposes to add to the Legislative Council would be directly elected, a concession that won over the Democratic Party.

But the reforms will still leave the legislature dominated by pro-Beijing business elites, while the chief executive will remain reliant on backing from the central government.

Only half of the current 60-seat legislature is popularly elected, with the rest picked by "functional constituencies" based on professions and mainly comprising pro-Beijing factions.

On Thursday, the legislature voted for the first part of the reform plan to enlarge the chief executive`s election committee from the current 800 to 1,200 members in 2012.

BDST:1146 HRS, June 25 2010
NJ/DC