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Chief executive election 2017
Hong KongPolitics

Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party says most members back Carrie Lam in leadership race

DAB chairwoman Starry Lee Wai-king also defended remarks calling out John Tsang on fiscal reserves

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DAB chairwoman Starry Lee says the personal preferences of party members over their choice of who to support in the city’s leadership race should be respected. Photo: Edward Wong
Emily Tsang
The largest pro-Beijing party in Hong Kong has said that most of its members back chief executive hopeful Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, while also defending the move by two vice-chairs to throw their weight behind her election campaign.

Lawmaker Starry Lee Wai-king, who is also the chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), made the remarks on a Commercial Radio programme on Wednesday morning, but added the party has yet to decide if all members must support the same candidate when casting their votes for the city’s next leader.

Lee defended the move by two vice-chairmen of the party – Brave Chan Yung and Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan – to openly join Lam’s campaign.

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“The personal preferences of party members should be respected,” she said.

“But I, as the chairwoman, would not side with anyone’s campaign before the decision of the party’s central committee, to avoid giving an image that DAB has already endorsed a candidate.”

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Lee admitted a majority of the party’s 100-plus members on the 1,194-strong Election Committee supported Lam, but they would still meet all four candidates to get to know them before backing their final choice in March.

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