Story highlights Committee of 1,194 people chooses the Hong Kong Chief Executive

Protests as Carrie Lam selected to succeed CY Leung

Hong Kong (CNN) Amid protests and poor weather, a tiny election committee drawn mostly from Hong Kong's elite has chosen the city's next leader.

Carrie Lam was selected to be the fourth Hong Kong chief executive, with 777 votes from the 1,194-person committee. A total of 1,163 valid votes were cast.

A former chief secretary and deputy to current Chief Executive CY Leung, Lam will be the first female leader in the city's history.

Pro-democracy members on the committee, around 25% of the total, backed former Financial Secretary John Tsang, while a tiny minority of lawmakers who favor self-determination for Hong Kong spoiled their ballots in protest at the "small circle election."

Reforming the current political system was a key demand of the 2014 "Umbrella Movement," in which tens of thousands of protesters shut down parts of the city for 79 days but ultimately failed to gain any concessions from the government.

Hong Kong's next chief executive Carrie Lam (center) stands with rivals John Tsang (left) and Woo Kwok-hing.

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