LEFTISTS suffered a setback during the elections to China's main united front body yesterday, when most elected Hongkong deputies outnumbered the votes of senior party leader Mr Li Ruihuan, who was elected as its chairman.
Five leftists and conservative ideologues received the lowest count of votes among the 315 nominees named by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to sit on the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Out of the 1,863 valid votes, only 1,412 supported State Council spokesman Mr Yuan Mu - dubbed ''Yuan 23'' for his insistence that only 23 people died in the June 4 suppression - in his bid for a seat on the standing committee.
Mr Yuan and the other 314 nominees, however, were all elected by majority to the standing committee.
Under the so-called ''same-candidate election'' in China, members are given only one choice for every seat, but can abstain from voting to show their disapproval.
Almost all the nominees received more than 1,800 votes and the list is expected to be rubber-stamped in its entirety.