Hong Kong’s ‘King of Votes’ in 2012 election scrapes home this time after tactical ploy almost misfires

In a dramatic twist, veteran Democrat James To Kun-sun – the former “King of Votes” who had led in opinion polls for weeks – found himself in a tough battle with Beijing-loyalist Wong Kwok-hing fighting for the last of the five “super seats” in the citywide polls.

The incumbent lawmaker only managed to breathe a sigh of relief after returning officers announced he had beaten the Federation of Trade Unions heavyweight with a razor-thin margin of 10,694 votes at 7pm on Monday, ensuring the pan-democrats retained the majority of the five “super seats”.

To had made an emergency appeal to voters on Sunday night after finding many of his supporters had voted for his younger and less popular colleague, Roy Kwong Chun-yu, as they thought To was a sure bet. He even changed his Facebook profile picture to black right after polls closed at 10.30pm in protest at the party’s unsatisfactory way of allocating votes.

“My colleagues, campaigners and volunteers are very angry … and I’ve not dared to convince or comfort them as they could not offer a reason as to why a capable lawmaker would have to lose,” To said late on Sunday night.

He complained that some campaigners from Kwong’s team had canvassed votes in New Territories East, which the party had allocated to him alongside Hong Kong Island.

The race for the five coveted “super seats” are for those candidates who are district councillors and elected by all voters who do not have vote in a traditional functional constituency. It ended up being a contest between three lists of candidates from each main political bloc after three pan-democrat underdogs threw in the towel days ahead of the polls in a bid to ease the infighting.