'Last time they let Albert Ho run …why not in 2017?'
Tycoon Walter Kwok says previous two elections show pan-democrat hopefuls won't be barred
If pan-democrats could run for the city's top job in the previous two elections, there is no reason why they should be barred from the 2017 poll where a "one man, one vote" system is expected to be in place, says a local tycoon.
"If [the Democratic Party's Albert Ho Chun-yan] was allowed to be a candidate the last time … I cannot see why [he can't run this time]," said Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, a former member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee.
Kwok was speaking at the launch of a scholarship programme he founded for Hong Kong and mainland students to pursue undergraduate courses at the University of Oxford.
In 2012, a 1,200-strong committee chose Leung Chun-ying over Ho and former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen to be the city's chief executive.
But under Beijing's restrictive framework for 2017, candidates will need majority support from a nomination committee formed in the same way as the 2012 committee. Many Hongkongers are concerned the system will screen out the popular pan-democrats, who do not have Beijing's trust.
Kwok did not believe that the 2017 election would be rendered meaningless if no pan-democrat were nominated to run.
"It all depends on whether they really love China and love Hong Kong," he said on Saturday. "But … which one of the pan-democrats really does?"