bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Jimmy Cheung

Democrats and The Frontier name 129 to contest the district council polls

Two pro-democracy groups are to field 129 candidates in the November district council elections.

With the two-week nomination period to begin on Thursday, the Democratic Party and The Frontier yesterday staged swearing-in ceremonies  for their candidates.

Democratic chairman Yeung Sum, who led his party's ceremony in Chater Garden, said the party would sponsor 116 candidates, of whom about 50 are running for the first time.

In the wake of the Article 23 controversy and the 500,000-strong demonstration on July 1,  the party would stand a better chance than rival Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), Dr Yeung said, so long as more people turned out to vote than last time.

'I think the voters will not forget that the DAB supported the government to rush through the legislation,' he said.

'I believe the pro-democracy camp, not just the Democrats, will have better results than in the 1999 polls.'

Lee Wing-tat, the party's vice-chairman,  earlier this month challenged DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing to resign if the Democrats win more than 55 of the 100 seats the two parties are jointly fighting for.

Expecting direct confrontations in about 100 constituencies, Mr Lee said he was confident the Democrats would win at least 55.

The DAB, which is expected to  field more than 200 candidates, kicks off its campaign today.

The party made a  breakthrough in the previous election, increasing its number of seats  from 37  to 83. The Democrats went from 75 seats to 86.

The Frontier plans to put up 13 candidates, only five of whom are incumbents.

The group's convenor, Emily Lau Wai-hing, would not be drawn on whether her party would fare better than before.

'It's true that the result last time was not very good. But we will just try our best,' she said.

She believed the group would not be in direct competition with its pro-democracy allies.

'The pro-democracy camp can only field up to 100-plus candidates altogether, whereas there are 400 elected seats,' she said. 'I don't think there should be any clashes among us.''

Political analyst Li Pang-kwong, of Lingham University, cautioned that the benefits the pro-democracy parties were expected to derive from the July 1 march might not be as large as anticipated.

'This is an election at the district level. The service and performance records of the candidates are relatively more important,'' Professor Li said.

He said the candidates' campaign slogans would likely speak specifically to the middle class, which had emerged as a political concern for parties following the crisis sparked by the July 1 demonstration.



Pro-democracy camp ready for election battle with DAB