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Jimmy Cheung

Factional disputes in the Democratic Party are turning up the heat in the battle for the party leadership, with the contest likely to be the most competitive yet.

Members of the 'reform camp', led by  Chan King-ming   and Kwong Kwok-chuen,  yesterday announced their bid to challenge Albert Ho Chun-yan  and his team in Sunday's poll.

Professor Chan is standing against Mr Ho in the chairmanship race, while Mr Kwong is taking on Mr Ho's running mates, Sin Chung-kai  and Tik Chi-yuen,  in the contest for two posts as vice-chairmen.

Two other  independents, Andrew Fung Wai-kwong and Ho Suk-ping, are also standing for vice-chairmen's posts.

The party has suffered from a series of factional disputes in past years.

The rift apparently deepened after a report compiled by the 'mainstream camp' openly criticised Professor Chan and his affiliates over a membership row.

Speaking at a leadership election forum last night, Mr Ho, who has been tipped to become  chairman, said the party was facing its most competitive contest so far.

He said it risked losing seats in  district councils and the Legislative Council  over the next two years, and called for  unity.

'The Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan also has different factions. But they stay united externally,' he said. 'It's impossible to have only one single voice in the party.

'But our differences should stay within the party.'

Professor Chan denied the reform camp's participation in the leadership race was splitting the party. He said that the party had failed to make improvements and now faced the risk of being marginalised in Hong Kong's political landscape.

'We need new faces and new forces to reform the party,' he said.

Outgoing party chairman Lee Wing-tat  said the pan-democratic camp should not become complacent after its candidates scooped more than 130 seats in the Election Committee.

He said the elections of the district councils and Legco should be the party's main focus.



Factions set to put the heat into Democrats' poll battle