Meet the electrician who wants to be a Hong Kong lawmaker. Can he power through in the coming Legislative Council election?
- Vincent Diu, an electrician without political party links, is not typical of the 51 candidates running for a new 40-seat Legco constituency
- Election Committee candidates in the first legislature poll since Beijing’s electoral overhaul are treading new ground in terms of key issues and campaigning methods
The 48-year-old is among the 51 candidates vying for the Election Committee constituency. Unlike the majority who are linked to political parties and professional associations, Diu is a union member but hardly part of the establishment elite.
A father of a boy and a girl, he used to be a clerk and tour guide. However, since 2014 he has specialised in electrical work on residential construction sites.
Diu said that over the past two years he found himself feeling troubled reading all the “bad” news about the economy, unemployment and the housing shortage in the city.
The more he read, Diu said, the more he felt he had to do something to speak up about the plight of “frontline workers” like himself.
“I hope to help Legco to solve these problems,” he told the Post.
The Election Committee constituency is part of the electoral overhaul imposed by Beijing in March this year and the December poll will be the first under the new system with this maiden batch of legislators elected by the powerful committee of 1,448 members.
Among the 51 candidates contesting the constituency, nine are former lawmakers seeking re-election, while the others include party members, university professors, lawyers, think tank leaders, veteran businesspeople, retired officials, unionists, as well as a priest and a bus driver.