Hong Kong pan-democrats may nominate John Tsang to ensure competition in chief executive race

Democratic Party chairman says vote should be exercised in such a way that it puts a stop to current political stalemate, but other pan-democrats disagree

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Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai is taking a pragmatic line on nominations. Photo: David Wong

Published: 8:02am, 5 Feb 2017Updated: 8:02am, 5 Feb 2017

Pan-democrats look set to make use of their sizeable share of the nominating bloc to allow John Tsang Chun-wah to stand in the chief executive election.

But the unprecedented endorsement of a pro-establishment figure who has made no firm commitment to push for universal suffrage will give critics more reason to attack pan-democrats, who are justifying their move by citing the need to stop Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor winning the election.

“The principle is we hope the race will be a competitive one,” Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said. “Our right to vote should be exercised in such a way that it would put a stop to the current political stalemate.”

Our right to vote should be exercised in such a way that it would put a stop to the current political stalemate

Democrat Wu Chi-wai

Unlike in the previous two elections, the pan-democrats will not nominate someone from their camp to join the race.

This time, after securing more than a quarter of the 1,194 seats on the Election Committee, pan-democrats will probably either nominate retired judge Woo Kwok-hing, who has portrayed himself as the moderate choice, or Tsang, who stands a stronger chance than Woo of winning the votes of Beijing loyalists if he becomes a formal candidate.

Asked which of the two was more likely to gain support from Democratic Party nominators, Wu said it would be the one “who will be a stronger competitor” to Lam.

That likely reference to Tsang as “the lesser of two evils” comes as Lam, the former chief secretary, fails to win praise from pan-democrats.