District council election's 'King of Votes': NeoDemocrats’ Francis Yam leads polls with highest number of votes

The candidate with the best election showing across the city’s 18 districts is no political greenhorn, but nor was he exactly a household name until 4,148 residents backed him on Sunday  – making up 72 per cent of the votes cast in Tai Po’s Yee Fu constituency.

Now nicknamed “King of Votes”, Francis Yam Kai-bong  of the NeoDemocrats  still does not think highly of himself. “Outside my constituency, I am just a nobody,” the rising star, 37, said.

Yam’s humbleness was already apparent during the campaigning, when he was up against Cheung Fung-yin of the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.  

It was the first time since entering politics in 1999 he was confronted by a woman rival, and it was not an easy battle.

“I didn’t want to appear too critical of her in case I was seen as disrespecting women. I chose to behave gentlemanly, staying patient and polite in the face of her attacks,” Yam said.

But given the former Democratic Party  member’s handsome wins in district polls, his latest victory was perhaps a foregone conclusion.