If timing is everything in politics, then Leung Chun-ying and his top lieutenants have proved they have the worst of it.
The chief executive's climbdown over national education was widely expected, but he had to wait until the eve of the Legco poll to make the announcement, leading to suspicion that he was trying to calm public anger to help so-called pro-establishment candidates.
If that had indeed been a factor in his decision, he should have conceded defeat much earlier. Alternatively, as it would hardly lessen the impact on voting results, he could have waited until after the election.
His second-in-command Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor yesterday urged the public not to question Leung's motives. She was probably right. The decision appears to have been made in an hour of desperation. Lam previously said the controversial curriculum had been discussed and consulted on for 10 years.
Leung blamed his predecessor, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, for forcing his hand into introducing it. But having introduced it at the worst possible time, Leung then picked a suspicious time to reverse course. All these expose his lack of political skills and experience, and are a repeat of his now-absurdly optimistic belief that he could push through a major government restructuring through the last Legco before he even took office.
Until recently, there was an air of apathy in the Legco election. Candidates, whether business-friendly or from the grass roots, whether pro-democracy or establishment, did a mediocre job in articulating their platforms or the key issues. The pan-democrats failed to co-ordinate their geographic candidacies - as they did in the 2008 poll - because of bitter infighting, thereby cannibalising each other's votes.