Good looks do attract votes, ‘Package Lau’ discovers

Being more attractive may not guarantee that you will win in an election, but it will help you get more votes.

That was the conclusion of an online survey commissioned by Lau Ming-wai, the 35 year-old vice-chairman of the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre think tank, and chairman of property developer Chinese Estates.

Lau was nicknamed “Package Lau” in January after he defeated an actor to be crowned Hong Kong’s “alpha male” on a reality show, with a female adjudicator praising him for “offering a better package” than his rival – in a reference to Lau’s more mature look and business background.

But Lau insisted on Monday that the survey was not to be taken as a hint of his interest in the Legislative Council election, which will be open for nomination next month.

“I don’t want to contest in ... any election, or jump into any lake of fire or whatever,” Lau said. “I did the survey because as a think tank, we are interested in how political parties are selling their platforms or promoting themselves.”

In November last year, 867 candidates fought for 363 seats in the district council election. The think tank’s survey was done last month by asking Facebook users to give 10 randomly picked candidates a score on a scale of 1 to 4 - with 4 being “super like” and 1 being “super dislike”.