Hong Kong political party seeks ‘powerful middleman’ status in Legco by winning at least 7 seats
As new political groups field candidates, pro-business Liberal Party hopes to expand its presence in city’s legislature
James Tien Pei-chun, who represents the New Territories East constituency, also confirmed on Wednesday that 32-year-old district councillor Dominic Lee Tsz-king could lead the party’s slate in the constituency in September, with Tien slotted in second place in an attempt to get both elected.
Yuen Long district councillor Chow Wing-kan, 49, could seek to reclaim the party’s seat in New Territories West, while Joseph Chan Ho-lim, 39, could challenge the Business and Professionals Alliance’s Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung in a commercial functional constituency. Lam quit the Liberal Party in 2008.
Tien said his party was mulling the bold strategy as their five seats in the 70-strong Legco were not enough for them to be “a powerful middleman” between the pro-establishment and pan-democratic blocs, which respectively have 43 and 27 lawmakers in the chamber.
Referring to the tense relationship between Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and the pan-democrats, Tien said: “With more seats, I hope we can influence the government so that it would not boycott the pan-democrats … The chief executive should communicate with the pan-democrats.”
He believed that if the Liberals and pan-democrats held almost half of the next Legco’s seats, officials would be keener to engage them.