AN emigration consultant for Filipino maids is poised to join the forthcoming Legislative Council elections, in a move which has sparked fears the polls will be exploited by candidates to boost their business interests.
Eric Leung Ka-ching plans to target domestic servants - whose right to vote has recently provoked controversy - in the new functional constituency for community, social and personal services.
Political analysts fear he will be the first of many taking advantage of these new seats to gain free publicity for their commercial interests, and warn it could become a 'paradise' for such businessmen.
Mr Leung recently put up hundreds of campaign-style posters in Central, and centres for Filipino maids throughout the territory. These advertise his emigration consultancy, and give a phone number for potential clients.
But he insists he has yet to make a final decision on whether to stand in the September elections: 'I am monitoring the feedback from the posters and will decide within a month or two.' The immigration consultant benefitted from an estimated $1 million worth of publicity, when he contested a seat in Sha Tin in the 1991 elections, and admits the popularity of his business will be boosted again, if he stands in September.
This time Mr Leung plans to target Filipino maids, who he believes constitute a big potential market for his services: 'If I stand for that constituency, my campaign posters will not need any Chinese or English, but only the Filipino language.' He claimed their future was uncertain after 1997, but he had a 'programme' to help them. He has been advertising an immigration scheme which allows maids to migrate to Canada.
Mr Leung believes up to 50,000 Filipinos will be eligible to vote in the forthcoming polls. But an unpublished Government estimate puts the figure at less than 11,000.
