One-sided election shows Hong Kong leadership contest is now a whole new ball game

John Tsang had hoped to pull off a ‘Barcelona’ comeback against the odds, but popularity no longer seems to be a decisive factor for Beijing – which analysts fear might discourage other contenders in future

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The three chief executive candidates embrace after the results are announced. Photo: Robert Ng

Published: 11:37pm, 27 Mar 2017

In his concession speech on Sunday, John Tsang Chun-wah quipped that his chief executive election bid could have been another Barcelona – a reference to the Spanish team’s stunning comeback against Paris St-Germain in a recent Champions League football match.
“I once thought perhaps I could turn the tables by the end of the match, just like Barcelona did in that epic game,” the former financial secretary said.

“But the fact is, you might not be able to win for sure no matter how good your team played, even when you have support from fans and keep scoring.”

Tsang, who led in almost every public opinion poll lost the match on Sunday to arch-rival Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the former chief secretary seen as Beijing’s preferred candidate.

He won 365 votes from the 1,194-member Election Committee – mostly from the pan-democrats – against Lam’s 777 tickets from the pro-establishment bloc.

While some scholars have described Lam’s victory as “a defeat of the majority’s view”, the election result also prompted many to ask if it would deter capable figures from the pro-establishment camp from joining future races.

“The election has signalled to all aspirants that they have absolutely no chance of winning if they are not heavily trusted by the central government, regardless of their capability,” Liberal Party leader Felix Chung Kwok-pan, a supporter of Tsang, told the Post.