Update | Carrie Lam qualifies for Hong Kong leadership race just short of winning post

Former chief secretary’s 572 nominations not quite the landslide some had predicted, but it puts her well clear of rivals John Tsang and Woo Kwok-hing

Reading Time:4 minutes

Chief executive candidate Carrie Lam arrives at the Electoral Affairs Office in Wan Chai to submit her nominations. Photo: Felix Wong

Joyce Ng,Tony Cheung,Ng Kang-chungandShirley Zhao

Published: 2:00pm, 28 Feb 2017Updated: 1:14pm, 1 Mar 2017

Front runner Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was 22 short of the final number of votes she will need to win Hong Kong’s leadership when she handed in her qualifying nominations on Tuesday, but her victory looks assured.

Observers said the tally put her in a very promising situation as several pro-Beijing blocs backing her in the Election Committee that will pick the city’s next chief executive by secret ballot had yet to play their cards at the voting stage.

Watch: Carrie Lam is surrounded dozens of protesters

When a beaming Lam submitted her 579 nominations on Tuesday, it was not quite the landslide that some quarters had expected from her, given reports of open lobbying on her behalf by Beijing’s liaison office, which was said to have aimed for up to 800 entry tickets for Lam to discourage her popular arch-rival, John Tsang Chun-wah, from running.

On Wednesday, the electoral office deemed seven nominations invalid, reducing Lam’s total to 572.

According to Lam’s campaign office spokesman, some nominators wrote simplified Chinese characters on their forms or did not write the characters clearly, while others did not write their ID card numbers clearly.

The spokesman said the office had been contacting the seven nominators to see if they could sign their nomination form again.

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