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Stuart Lau

Social workers are gearing up for a possible three-way tussle in the pan-democrat camp in the forthcoming Legislative Council elections. One could be Civic Party member Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, who is currently involved in a court case linked to the Occupy protests.
The race started on Sunday after Yip Kin-chung, president of the Social Workers’ General Union, launched his bid to win the Legco social welfare seat.
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All eyes are on whether Yip can unite democratically minded social workers to win a seat in a functional constituency that traditionally returns pan-democrats.
The union is the most influential body among local social workers. The incumbent lawmaker, Peter Cheung Kwok-che, is also from the union, but he is not seeking re-election, citing health issues.
Yip, who is not high-profile with the media, said he had better frontline experience than his two possible rivals – Tsang and Baptist University social work lecturer Shiu Ka-chun.
Tsang is vice-president of the union and a party in an ongoing court case centring on alleged ­police use of violence during the Occupy sit-ins. He was also earlier convicted of assaulting officers and sentenced to five weeks in jail.
He told the court during testimony that he was planning to run in the Legco elections. It is understood he might vie for the same seat as Yip.
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The union says it is scheduling a meeting with Tsang and Shiu later this month to discuss whether to hold a “primary election” to choose a single representative.
But Cheung, who pledged to support Yip, said: “I think it would be quite difficult to hold a primary. Money is a concern.”
Cheung won about 9,000 votes in the 2012 election, compared to 1,000 votes for the pro-establishment candidate.
“Even if each three of the possible contenders got 3,000, we would still outnumber the pro-establishment candidate,” Yip said.


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Legislative Council elections 2016

Three pan-democrat candidates may seek Hong Kong social welfare Legislative Council seat

Occupy activist Ken Tsang is eyeing a possible run for the Legco seat for social workers. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

Politics

Two social workers eye functional constituency seat, including Occupy activist Ken Tsang; the other contender may be a social work lecturer
