What's happening?

Polls opened at 07:30 local time (23:30 GMT) on Sunday.

By 16:30 more than 2.1 million people had voted (52.14% of all registered voters) compared to 754,705 (24.18%) within the same timescale in the last such elections in 2015, according to government figures.

In total, 1.467 million people voted in the last poll. Only 3.1 million people were registered to vote in that election.

More than 1,000 candidates are running for 452 district council seats which, for the first time, are all being contested. A further 27 seats are allocated to representatives of rural districts.

Currently, pro-Beijing parties hold the majority of these seats.

Police were seen outside some polling stations and on the streets but correspondents said they kept a low profile.

"Facing the extremely challenging situation, I am pleased to say... we have a relatively calm and peaceful environment for (the) election today," Carrie Lam said after voting.

Counting will start immediately after polls close at 22:30. Results are expected to start coming in before midnight.