Lee Wing-tat offers to quit if his party fails to win 55 of the contested seats
Lee Wing-tat, the vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, yesterday challenged DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing to resign if the Democrats win more than 55 of the 100 seats that the two parties are competing for in the district council elections.
Expecting head-on clashes in about 100 constituencies in November, Mr Lee said he was confident that the Democrats would win at least 55 seats.
'I would resign if the party failed to do that. Alternatively, I challenge Tsang to do the same if the DAB could not do that,' Mr Lee said.
The Democrats plan to field no more than 130 candidates in the coming elections, compared with the 170 it fielded in the 1999 polls. Of these, 50 are new faces.
Mr Lee said lack of funding had prevented the party from sponsoring many hopefuls who did not have a good chance of winning. Campaign funding for new candidates has also been halved, to $7,500.
The party is to conduct internal opinion polls this month to see if candidates with poor prospects of winning should go ahead, according to Mr Lee.
