The Liberal Party is considering whether to field more candidates in the District Council elections in light of the surge of support they have received since July 1.
But James Tien Pei-chun - the party's chairman who was widely praised for resigning from Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's cabinet, thereby forcing the National Security Bill to be withdrawn - said it would be dangerous for the party to make any hasty decisions.
According to an opinion poll carried out by Chinese University's Institute of Asia Pacific Studies in the aftermath of the July rallies, the popularity of the party increased from 2.3 per cent in May to 6.7 per cent.
In the 1999 District Council elections, the Liberals fielded 34 candidates but only 15 were elected. Mr Tien said the party would field roughly the same number of candidates this time but would consider absorbing newcomers in light of the favourable political tide.
'About half a dozen independent incumbents have approached us recently, wanting to join our ranks to run in the election. We are still considering whether their platforms would comply with our party ideals,' he said.
'We would not rule out fielding more new candidates ourselves as we have attracted more support from the middle-class and professionals since July 1, but we have to see the real situation after other opinion polls are conducted. It will be dangerous to field a lot of new faces without first establishing good track records of district works.'
