HONG KONG - CANDIDATES in Hong Kong's legislative race made their final appeals to voters on Saturday ahead of polls expected to favor parties backed by China's central government.

Members of the opposition and conservative camps canvassed local neighborhoods in hopes of turning out their supporters for Sunday's balloting.

'If Hong Kong people want democracy, if they want the government to be closely monitored, they have to vote,' said Audrey Eu, a pro-democracy candidate who leads the Civic Party.

Although a hot-button issue in past campaigns, democratic reform has largely taken a back seat to pragmatic concerns like wages, education and inflation this time around.

Currently, only half of Hong Kong's 60-member Legislative Council is elected by the populace, with the rest chosen by interest groups.

But China's central government quelled much of the debate over democratic reform last year when it announced that the territory could elect its own leader in 2017 and all of its legislators in 2020, at the earliest. The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Robbed of their signature issue, pro-democracy, anti-government lawmakers could lose as many as five of their 26 seats, analysts say. Any more than that would cost them their veto power and greatly expand conservatives' ability to mold policy to the Chinese government's liking.

Also helping Beijing's allies are a booming mainland economy and a resurgent sense of nationalism that's only increased with last month's Olympic Games.

'We will do our job to monitor the government. We will criticise it if it does anything wrong, but at the same time we will work with the government to help solve problems,' said Tsang Yok-sing, a leading member of the main conservative party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.

Pro-democracy candidates fared well during the last legislative election in 2004, a year after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest an anti-subversion bill that many viewed as an attack on civil liberties.

After a record 55 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in the election four years ago, a lower turnout rate was expected Sunday - which would likely help pro-mainland candidates.

About 3.4 million of the territory's 7 million people are registered to vote this year. -- AP