The Civic Party has officially announced its candidate to run in the Legislative Council by-election in February, while a primary between pan-democrats will not be held.
Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu will join the by-election on February 28 for the seat left by the resignation of former lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah in October. Yeung is widely known as Tong’s apprentice.
Yeung compared the election to a football match, that it is a match versus China and versus Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
“The district council election on November 22 was the first half, we got a goal, the by-election on February 28 is the added time of the first half, we must get another goal,” he said.
“The LegCo election next September is the second half… if we Hong Kong people can get a goal in every section, we have the opportunity to send a strong message to Beijing, that we do not want Leung Chun-ying.”
The elected councillor will only have a term of about five months, but Yeung said this was still an important match, in order to block the joint checkpoint arrangement for the high speed rail project rumoured to be discussed in LegCo after the election. He said the proposed arrangement “does not respect the Basic Law”.
Civic Party leader and lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said that he had sent invitations to pan-democrat parties, including People Power, League of Social Democrats (LSD) and now independent lawmaker Raymond Wong Yuk-man, and they have agreed to support Yeung’s run.
People Power, LSD and Wong – who are not in the regular pan-democracy meetings mechanism – have set up a liaison group with the other pan-democrats to work on the issue.
No primary
The Civic party and political group Youngspiration have agreed that a primary between pro-democracy candidates will not be held due to shortage of preparation time.
The two groups have gone through two official meetings, which they exchanged views and reached a consensus.
Youngspiration convenor Baggio Leung Chung-hang told Apple Daily that the group will decide whether to send its own candidate to the election soon, but personally he was inclined not to do so.
Leung said Youngspiration had yet to decide which candidate to support if they were not running themselves, as there could be other localist candidates with similar ideals as the group running in the election.
Other hopefuls
The pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is likely to send its vice-chairman Holden Chow Ho-ding to the election.
Chow told Ming Pao that he will “proactively consider” joining the race, but he will follow DAB’s final decision.
Tik Chi-yuen, who quit the Democratic Party in September to form a new group, said his party was still considering.
North District Parallel Imports Concern Group convenor Ronald Leung Kam-shing said that any people with ability should join the race, but the seat should not be given to the apprentice directly. He is considering to run.
Christine Fong Kwok-shan, a Sai Kung district councillor, told residents that she is considering a run in a phone message sending Christmas greetings, Singtao Daily reported.
The nomination period is between January 5 and 18.
