Plum Blossoms

« Democrats and the Small Circle, Part 1 | Main | Inflammatory? 煽動？ »

April 10, 2005

Democrats and the Small Circle, Part 2

This is the second of two stories on how the HK democratic camp is participating in the CE election process that it fundamentally opposes. This one is about the specifics of whom the democratic camp is sending to run in the Election Committee by-elections.

DEMOCRATIC CAMP PLEDGE RALLY, 9 TO RUN FOR EC, LEE: ENTER THE INSTITUTION TO REFORM THE INSTITUTION
MONDAY, 11 APRIL, LAST UPDATED 05:05

Ming Pao: As the Election Committee responsible for electing the new Chief Executive is about to hold its by-elections, the democratic camp held a pledge rally yesterday, announcing that they will send 9 candidates to run in 5 subsectors, including Legal, District Council, Accountancy, Surveying, and Higher Education. The candidates say that they will support “fighting for general election of the Chief Executive.” Democratic Party leader Lee Wing-tat, when asked whether he will support Acting CE Donald Tsang, replied that “if his platform does not include democratic elements, no matter how friendly I am with him, I will not support him.”

Of the nine EC candidates, there are 2 lawyers, 2 accountants, 4 HKDP members, and 1 Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) member. Included is HKDP vice-chairman Chan King-ming, running for Higher Education and originally a professor at the CUHK Biology Department. When asked about the odds of success of the 9, Lee Wing-tat says that he cannot predict their likelihood of winning, but hopes that they will do their best.

Chan King-ming is running

Lee Wing-tat explains that even though they oppose “small circle elections,” they will still send candidates to set a “democratic example” to improve the small circle election system, and to “enter the institution to reform the institution” Article 45 Concern Group member Ronny Tong thinks that if the democratic camp, who enjoys the support of sixty percent of the people of Hong Kong, is unable to win, it will exemplify the absurdity of the EC.

Asked about his hopes for the new CE, Accountancy candidate Leung Kai-cheung thinks that a CE candidate should be a mature political talent, and whether his background is in the civil service or in business does not matter. The candidate must also have an international perspective, be able to win the trust of the central government, and capable of moving forward the democratic process. As for whether there is such a candidate at the present stage, Leung says that this “is a large question mark.”

Says support for CE depends on platform

When asked whether he will support Donald Tsang, Lee Wing-tat replied, “Whether a CE candidate knows us, is our friend, or have had dinner with us is not important! If his platform does not contain democratic elements, we will not support him, no matter how much of a friend he is to us.”

EC elections will be held on 1 May, filling 27 vacancies in 16 subsectors. Their terms will last until 13 July. The 800 EC member are expected to vote for the new CE on 10 July.

Posted by Kelvin at April 10, 2005 11:40 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.kelvin-chan.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/114

Comments

Post a comment