Starry Lee looks to put DAB in poll position with Executive Council resignation

When Starry Lee Wai-king took the reins of Hong Kong’s biggest ­pro-Beijing party last year, she indicated she wanted to step down from the Executive Council – but it was a statement that went largely unnoticed in the broader conversation about proposed changes to the city’s political landscape.

When, almost a year later, she finally announced that she had tendered her resignation, it sparked questions on why she was doing it and why now.

Was it because she was abandoning Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s team? Or was she putting some distance between herself and the increasingly ­unpopular Leung? Was it because the Legislative Council elections are only months away and the biggest party in town must start mobilising or risk losing its dominance?

The answer is probably a combination of all these aspects but political commentators believe that two elections were uppermost on her mind: September’s Legco election and the chief executive poll a year from now.

Lee, the 42-year-old chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), yesterday tried to play down her resignation and said she had called it quits “to put focus on dealing with matters in Legco and the party”.

When asked if her decision was related to any desire to run in the chief executive election, Lee dismissed the question, saying: “You are thinking too much.”