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HONG KONG, Aug 27 (Reuters) A surge in post-Olympic nationalism could colour Hong Kong's legislative polls next week, giving a further advantage to pro-Beijing candidates over the city's bruised democratic camp, analysts and politicians say.
The democrats who sailed to big wins in earlier polls backed by voters suspicious of Beijing could face a sterner test on September 7 when Hong Kong votes for a new legislature following China's slick, image-bolstering Olympics.
''We are in a much more difficult position,'' conceded Albert Ho, Chairman of the Democratic Party. ''This time we are suffering from the pressure of nationalism which is generated from the Olympic sentiment.'' Since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, the capitalist hub's system of party politics has been largely defined along a political axis separating pro-Beijing or pro-business forces from the opposition democratic camp.
Analysts say scant resources, factional infighting, and retiring party heavyweights could also weigh against the Democratic camp, though it was still expected to win a vital threshold of one-third of the new legislature's seats.
''If we fail to (win more than a third), we would be unable to exercise the crucial power of veto, and lose the legislative checks and balances,'' Ho said.
Sixty seats will be up for grabs, 30 of which are directly elected. The rest are voted upon by small, mostly commercial special interest groups called functional constituencies.
Amendments to the city's mini-constitution or Basic Law require a two-thirds majority to pass, meaning the democrats who held 25 seats in the last legislature were able to veto contentious moves, including a 2005 electoral reform package deemed regressive.
Last December, Beijing pledged to grant Hong Kong universal suffrage in 2017, taking much steam out of the democrats' electoral campaign, with livelihood rather than democracy issues now dominating party slogans and placards lining the streets.
This, coupled with Beijing's preoccupation with the Olympics and other crises including the Sichuan earthquake and Tibet, have given China more confidence in handling ''internal and external pressures,'' said Michael DeGolyer, a political scientist with Hong Kong's Baptist University.
To further nail down its advantage, China will fly in a delegation of Olympic gold medal winners to Hong Kong on Friday for a high-profile and carefully orchestrated three-day visit.
''The Beijing leadership carefully planned for this event in order to create a good atmosphere to help the pro-government, pro-China (political) groups,'' said James Sung, a political analyst at City University. ''It really matters.''
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