All Around Town: So which Hong Kong politician keeps gunning for losing candidate?

What happens when two losers get together? Following Third Side candidate Nelson Wong Sing-chi’s humiliating defeat in Sunday’s Legislative Council by-election, party chairman Tik Chi-yuen said he still believed his party’s “moderate approach” held appeal with voters, and he made a public appeal to another defeated candidate, Christine Fong Kwok-shan, who also calls herself a “middle-of-the-roader”, to join hands with Third Side in the September general election. Fong and Wong, both political veterans, pulled in about 50,000 votes between them compared to 66,500 votes won by localist candidate Edward Leung Tin-kei. Tik seems to have a penchant for losers. In January, he led a party delegation to Taiwan to learn election strategies, including that of James Soong Chu-yu of the People First Party, a four-time loser as a presidential and vice-presidential candidate.

Ng Kang-chung

Hong Kong Indigenous fails the maths test

Let’s stay with the by-election. So much has been said about the rise of localism and the spectacular result for Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous who came third in the race. Leung claimed localism had gained a foothold as the third most important power in local politics, standing side by side with the pan-democrat and pro-establishment camps. But veteran politician and Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing was not impressed, laughing off Leung’s claim and making what appeared to be a sour grapes remark. “What third force? Well, [he is entitled to his views] but a claim should always be backed up by facts…He got some 60,000-plus votes. And how many votes were cast in total? Over 400,000. So, how could it be a third? [Does he] know how to do arithmetic?” said Lau in a radio interview.

Ng Kang-chung