Hong Kong's leader-in-waiting, John Lee, is expected to be endorsed for the city's top job today by a committee stacked with pro-Beijing loyalists, as the financial hub attempts to relaunch itself after years of political upheaval.

Some 1,500 members of a pro-Beijing election committee will cast their votes for Lee, the sole candidate, this morning at a harbourfront convention centre, with a simple majority required to anoint him as Hong Kong's next leader.

Few of the city's 7.4 million people have...