Pan-democrats must rally behind Hong Kong people’s choice for leader, John Tsang

Albert Cheng believes the former financial secretary – by far the most popular chief executive contender – is the only one who has a chance of stopping Beijing’s choice, Carrie Lam, winning the election in March

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Former financial secretary John Tsang holds an event this week to unveil his election platform for the chief executive election in March. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:42pm, 9 Feb 2017Updated: 8:05pm, 9 Feb 2017

Chief executive contender John Tsang Chun-wah has so far raised more than HK$4.5 million for his campaign from over 20,000 donors on a crowdfunding platform. The public support has been overwhelming; Tsang would win hands down if this were a one-person, one-vote election.

Given his popularity, it should be a piece of cake for Tsang to secure the 37,790 nominations needed (about 1 per cent of eligible voters) to enter the race in a public voting campaign engineered by Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting and billed as a “civil referendum” for the chief executive race. Tai hopes to convince the 326 pan-democrats in the Election Committee – the actual body that will pick Hong Kong’s next leader – to nominate a candidate backed by the people.

Hong Kong public to be polled on next chief executive

As of today, the 326 pan-democrats in the 1,194-member committee has yet to agree on a plan of action. The chances of the people’s-choice candidate receiving the necessary 150 nominations from the pan-democratic camp in the Election Committee are slim.

Radical legislator “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung is trailing in second place behind Tsang in the unofficial nomination exercise, but it’s unlikely the pan-democrats would nominate him, given the lukewarm public reception of his candidacy.

Watch: Leung Kwok-hung enters the chief executive race

The democrats should field at least one candidate from within their ranks who meets their requirements, so their standard bearer can present their policies during campaign debates, and highlight the inadequacies of the pro-establishment candidates.

Pan-democrats must rally behind Hong Kong people’s choice for leader, John Tsang

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Watch: Leung Kwok-hung enters the chief executive race

Hong Kong public to be polled on next chief executive