Dozens of local residents and activists gathered outside outgoing district councillor Elizabeth Quat’s office on Tuesday night to “celebrate” her defeat in the latest district election.
Champagne bottles were opened, party poppers were set off and people sang a classic joyful Cantonese tune by pop singer Paula Tsui.
Here’s the champagne pic.twitter.com/hwzO8qeEjC
— Kris Cheng (@krislc) November 24, 2015
Residents who joined the rally were happy about Quat’s loss, saying “she rarely comes to the district to serve residents.”
Quat was beaten by Labour Party’s Yip Wing in the Chung On constituency in Ma On Shan. Yip was running for the first time, but had been working in the constituency for more than two years.
On Tuesday, DAB lawmaker Ip Kwok-him condemned people joining a rally to celebrate defeat of veteran councillor Chris “Tree Gun” Chung.
Organisers said that the comment made them create the event to “spread the happiness.”
Several dozens, I say? pic.twitter.com/rX2trMJHqC
— Kris Cheng (@krislc) November 24, 2015
The rally also highlighted the alleged “fake” degrees of the DAB Party lawmaker. Quat claimed to have received three degrees from the now defunct “diploma mill” Greenwich University, Hawaii.
During the event, an egg was thrown down from the public estate building in Ma On Shan. The egg hit one person on the chest.
Quat is also a lawmaker in the Legislative Council, to which she was elected in 2012.
Organisers and party joiners said they have only done “half of the job”, and vowed to unseat her from LegCo in the election next year. They also want to unseat DAB lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan – who also ran in the New Territories East constituency.
“This time it’s district council, next time it’s LegCo!” pic.twitter.com/6QokGNDpR1
— Kris Cheng (@krislc) November 24, 2015
Quat, a pro-Beijing veteran politician nicknamed “EQ”, first said on Monday that the loss was due to the effect of last year’s pro-democracy Occupy protests, and the changes to the formation of her constituency made her unable to reach residents who were not assigned to the new area.
She later sent a message to her party colleagues on Tuesday that it was actually because of the government building a new housing estate near her constituency and residents did not agree with the plan, Singtao Daily reported.
