Why Hong Kong's five 'super seat' lawmakers are feeling the political heat
The five lawmakers elected in citywide Legco polls face a test of political endurance in also having to answer to their local constituents
Run ragged by weeks of intense campaigning, "super district councillor" Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood barely managed to keep himself together before the media as the votes were counted in the district council polls and his painful loss became apparent.
Fung was rejected by his constituents after 12 years' service, losing his seat in the Lai Kok constituency of Sham Shui Po to his pro-establishment opponent Joephy Chan Wing-yan of the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
The defeat, by just 99 votes, means Fung is disqualified from running for the "super seat" in the Legislative Council elections next year.
A "super district councillor" is a lawmaker returned from the district council (second) constituency of Legco. Candidates must be district councillors and nominated by 15 other council members, before being able to enter the citywide elections.
The seats were introduced in the last Legco election in 2012 as a compromise solution to reform the functional constituencies, the bulk of which are elected by voters from their respective professional or trade sectors.
There are five such "super seats". Four of the five incumbents took part in this year's district level elections - Fung, Democrats James To Kun-sun and Albert Ho Chun-yan, and Starry Lee Wai-king, of the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. Only To and Lee were re-elected.
The fifth, Chan Yuen-han of the FTU, did not run.