First ethnic Chinese candidate elected to British Parliament

Alan Mak won the constituency of Havant in southeast Hampshire for the Conservatives Friday with over 51 percent of the vote, making history as the first ethnic Chinese ever elected to the British Parliament.

Mak, 31, was born and grew up in York. He studied law at the University of Cambridge and completed a post-graduate law and business diploma in Oxford. His parents were migrants from Hong Kong and started a small family business in the 1970s.

According to results announced so far by Friday morning from individual constituencies, Mak picked up 23,159 votes in Havant.

He was followed by the UK Independence Party (UKIP) with 9,239 votes. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats in this constituency secured 7,149 and 2,929 votes respectively, and both witnessed declines in the share of the vote.

Michael Wilkes, vice-chairman of the British Chinese project, said Mak's victory was great news for British Chinese. It's a very important landmark in the history of British Chinese that a Chinese was elected to the parliament, he said.

Wilkes said Mak's priority is to serve voters in the constituency of Havant, and hoped Mak would help promote the well-being of Chinese in Britain.

A total of 11 Chinese candidates have participated in the election this year, but only Mak won a seat in the parliament. Endi