Yau Fun, a former member of the middle-of-the-way political party Third Side, announced his candidacy on Thursday for the upcoming Chief Executive election, according to a Sing Pao report.
Third Side is a political party established by former members of the Democratic Party Tik Chi-yuen and Wong Sing-chi. Yau left the party along with nine others in July.
According to Sing Pao, Yau received news last Monday that the Chinese Central Government would not allow current Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to be re-elected.
Yau, who claimed to work for the Chinese government as a public security agent, said he had received orders to run in the Chief Executive election that would be held in March 2017, the paper reported.
Although he still has a long way to go before gaining the 150 nominations required to run in the election, he told the paper that he was confident. He said he thought he was one of the candidates who had received the blessing of the Chinese Central Government.
Yau told the paper that he thought his candidacy might be the Central Government’s way of encouraging others who might also have the intention to run for Chief Executive, such as Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, to announce their candidacy sooner.
According to Sing Pao, Yau joined the government in 1996, and has previously worked in the Department of Justice and the Fire Services Department. He left the government in 2007 because he faced “political persecution.”
