Hong Kong lawmaker faces uphill battle as pan-democrat rival set to join district council race in November

A veteran pan-democratic lawmaker who won his “super seat” in the legislature after being returned as a district councillor four year ago is facing an uphill battle to retain his seat in Sham Shui Po after a former protégé decided to run against him in November’s district council elections.

Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood submitted his nomination form today to run in the Lai Kok constituency.

Fung, who won a territory-wide “super seat” in the 2012 Legislative Council election, expressed regret that fellow pan-democrat Eric Wong Chung-ki – a former vice-chairman of Fung’s party – had declared his intention to contest the same constituency, but said he would not be afraid of challenges.

The five so-called “super seats” were proposed by the Democratic Party in 2010 and introduced by the government in the last Legco election as a compromise solution in reforming the chamber’s functional constituencies, which are elected by voters from professional and trade sectors.

The super-seat lawmakers must first be elected as district councillors before seeking one of five Legco seats in a city-wide poll involving the 3.2 million voters who are not eligible to vote in any other functional constituency. The voter base is by far the largest in the Legco poll.

Fung’s belated decision to seek another term in Sham Shui Po district council was made after days of contemplation with his election team in the wake of the news that Wong also intended to run in Lai Kok.