DAB fares best, taking 13 seats, thanks for vote-splitting tactic

The Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong was the biggest winner in the election, clinching 13 seats.

Its success in the five geographical constituencies, where it won nine seats, was a result of its strong district network and strategy of spreading votes among its candidates, party chairman Tam Yiu-chung said.

The DAB had its rivals to thank for that vote-allocation strategy, he said. "We learned the tactic from our rivals in the results of the 2008 election," Tam said.

The party captured nine out of 35 directly elected seats, a gain of two seats from the last legislature. All the nine slates it ran in the five geographical constituencies won seats.

Chinese University political scientist Ma Ngok said the victory of the Beijing-loyalist camp did not mean it enjoyed greater public support than the pan-democrats - it was rather the result of a better strategy in splitting votes. Indeed, the camp's share of the vote was only 42.3 per cent.

"On Hong Kong Island, the votes were allocated so precisely that the party's two candidates, Jasper Tsang Yok-sing and Christopher Chung Shu-kun, clinched 36,517 and 33,901 votes respectively. It guaranteed the election of both candidates."

Vote splitting involves a party dividing its votes among different slates in the hope that more candidates will be elected. It is the first time the DAB encouraged its supporters to split their votes.