Pan-democrats missed chance by not joining election race, Hong Kong’s outgoing leader says
They should have fielded a candidate instead of voting for John Tsang, he says, while two US politicians accuse Beijing of interfering
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has attacked the pan-democrats for backing former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah in the city’s leadership election instead of putting forward their own candidate.
His remarks came as two US politicians accused Beijing of interfering in the election and urged chief executive-elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to defend the rights and democratic aspirations of Hong Kong people.
Watch: Carrie Lam wins the election
Lam, the former chief secretary who was widely seen as Beijing’s preferred choice, won the support of 777 members of the 1,194-strong Election Committee on Sunday, defeating Tsang, who was more popular with the public but got only 365 votes, largely from the pan-democrats. Leung won the election in 2012 with 689 votes.
Speaking before a meeting of his Executive Council on Tuesday, Leung said 777 was a high number, as obtaining more than half of the votes was not easy in any competitive election.
“The pan-democrats took more than 300 seats but did not co-ordinate to send a representative to run. I think they have missed a chance,” Leung said, adding that the opposition camp had already missed the opportunity to let Hongkongers have “one man, one vote” by rejecting a proposal for political reform in 2015 based on Beijing’s framework.
