Hong Kong's government on Monday said record low voter turnout for weekend by-elections designed to speed up political reform in the city showed lacklustre support for campaigners' tactics.

The ballot, which angered Beijing and divided the city's democracy movement, came after five pro-democracy lawmakers from the Legislative Council quit in January to force what they said was a de facto referendum on the issue.

Frustrated by what they say is China's intransigence, the lawmakers had hoped it would send the strongest signal yet to Beijing on the desire for greater democracy since the former colony was returned from Britain to China in 1997.

However, the outcome of the vote was seen as academic since all pro-Beijing political parties boycotted the process with the government repeatedly dismissing it as a waste of taxpayers' money.

About 17 percent of Hong Kong's 3.4 million registered voters cast a vote but Chief Executive Donald Tsang and his senior ministers refused to vote.

Democracy campaigners had earlier said they hoped for a 30 percent turnout.

"This is the lowest-ever turnout rate for any Legislative Council election since the Handover, including general elections and by-elections," Stephen Lam, the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, said in a statement.

"Thus it is clear that there is only a rather low level of support among the community with regard to the resignation and by-election plan."

Chief Executive Tsang told a radio programme: "Hong Kong people have expressed their views…. All of us want democracy. But they've also told us they're generally satisfied with what has been put on the table."

The English-language South China Morning Post and Standard newspapers both ran front-page headlines focusing on the number of people who cast a ballot.

"Low turnout deals blow to pan-democrats," the Post said.

Tanya Chan, one of the five legislators who won back her seat on Sunday, said the turnout was decent in light of the government boycott.

"It was not an easy decision for many people to vote because there were so many attacks and allegations against us from the government and pro-establishment camp," she told AFP.

"We encouraged a lot of young people to participate and it let people learn more about how this government functions, or malfunctions."

Under the current electoral system, only half of Hong Kong's 60-seat legislature is directly elected while the rest is selected by the pro-China business elite. Campaigners want the entire parliament to be directly elected.

They also want voters to be able to choose the city's chief executive, who is currently appointed by a Beijing-friendly election committee.

Beijing has said that, at the earliest, Hong Kong's leader can be directly elected by 2017 and the legislature by 2020.

James Sung, a political scientist at City University of Hong Kong, said the "radical" lawmakers' push for faster reforms could ultimately split the city's pro-democracy movement with Beijing eager to court moderate legislators.

"It could separate them into two camps and that would change the whole political terrain," he told AFP.

The weekend poll also gave a boost to the "radical" wing of the democracy movement which has garnered widespread support among younger people, Sung said.

"But most people still want to see and maintain good relations (with mainland China)," he added.

"They don't want Beijing to think they want independence or something like that."

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