Double role for legislator allowed

Legislator Choy So-yuk will be allowed to stay in the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance even if she runs under a DAB ticket in September's election, it emerged yesterday.

Gary Cheng Kai-nam, vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), said Ms Choy could remain a member of the alliance but she must stand under the sole banner of the DAB and be a DAB lawmaker upon securing a Legco seat.

'The flexibility is warranted to facilitate long-term co-operation [between the DAB and HKPA]. It's not just for a single incident. A new working mode is needed,' he said.

He declined to say whether the flexibility was paving the way for the DAB to take over the HKPA.

Justifying why the DAB had not insisted Ms Choy quit the alliance, as some DAB members had privately suggested, he said: 'It's not a hostile takeover. Why should we do that?' Ms Choy said she hoped she would be allowed to stay in the alliance while being a DAB member.

'Thus the change for me would be the least,' she said.