A Young Turk in the Democratic Party, Chan Kwok-leung, last night announced his decision to quit the party. He said: 'When the party can no longer tolerate Lau Chin-shek and Tsang Kin-shing, it will not be able to tolerate me.' Mr Lau was expelled on June 15 for dual membership with The Frontier, a month after Mr Tsang, a leading Young Turk, quit the party to run on his own in September's Legco poll.
In a letter to the party's central committee, Mr Chan said party legislators had gradually been absorbed by the political establishment and had distanced themselves further from the masses. He criticised the party for failing to take a clear position on many issues and trying to take a middle-class approach and develop a better relationship with the Government.
'I have tried to promote democracy from within the party to oppose the party position, give more attention to the grassroots and to unemployment issues. But since it ran against the vested interests, there was strong resistance and I failed.
'Martin Lee Chu-ming, Szeto Wah and Albert Ho Chun-yan are still people I admired most. You are still our spiritual leaders. I hope you can still lead people to fight for democracy and against social injustice,' he said.
Mr Chan lost his seat in the last district council election in Hong Kong Island constituency. He originally ranked fourth on the party's list of candidates for the island geographical constituency in September's poll after Mr Lee, vice-chairman Yeung Sum and Kam Nai-wai.
He withdrew from the list in protest against a vote of no-confidence in his ally Mr Tsang, known as 'the bull', by the Hong Kong Island's district office.