Members of the HKFTU team to contest in Kowloon East display election brochures that advertise their demand for legislation of standard working hours. A total of 137 nomination forms for the 2012 LegCo election were received at the close of the nomination period on Tuesday. Kahon Chan / China Daily

69 teams vie for 35 geographical constituency seats in LegCo race

The battle lines are drawn and the parties lined up for fierce fights in Hong Kong's geographical constituencies where 69 teams of candidates will battle it out for 35 seats. In sharp contrast, 16 out of the 30 original functional seats will be won uncontested.

Analysts caution that the sheer immensity of the candidate lists in the city-wide ballot will make it difficult for any team's second candidate to win the election to the Legislative Council (LegCo).

There are five new seats up for grabs, one in each of the five geographical constituencies, increasing the tally to 35. But even with the increase in the number of seats, the field looks distinctly overcrowded as the two-week nomination period ended on Tuesday.

In comparison to this year's 69 candidate lists for 35 seats, only 55 lists competed in the 2008 election in which there were 30 seats available.

In particular, voters in the New Territories East will find an exhaustive choice of 20 candidate lists on their ballots. Those in Kowloon West will choose from among nine.

Ma Ngok, a political analyst from the Chinese University, said the surge in the number of candidates showed both the pro-establishment and opposition camps have failed to coordinate amongst themselves.

As the large number of lists will decentralize the vote spread, he said the chance for any team to get a second candidate into the LegCo under the proportional mechanism will become "very low".

"The newcomers thus believed it would require fewer votes to get the last seat in the constituency. More people think it is worth a try," he said. Likewise, it was deemed more difficult for newcomers to pull votes away from major players in the less competitive fields of Kowloon.

The sheer dynamicity of voter spread explains why the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) decided on Monday to drop its bid in Kowloon West.

Wong Kwok-kin, who leads the HKFTU team in Kowloon East, said on Tuesday that the weak membership base in Kowloon West has undermined any chance to win. "If our odds are under 50 percent, it is pointless for us to lose and sabotage others' odds as well," he said.

The unionist said though the party has no presence in Kowloon West, district councillors will not campaign for allies like Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). The decision is meant to avoid confusion among voters.

Other leading candidates in Kowloon East are Wu Chi-wai (Democratic Party), Chan Kam-lam (DAB), Paul Tse Wai-chun, Alan Leong Kah-kit (Civic Party), Tam Heung-man, Andrew To Kwan-hang (League of Social Democrats) and Wong Yeung-tat (People Power), Kay Yim Fung-chi and Galian Lydia Chung Kit-wan.

Seven teams have also signed up for five new vacancies created under the District Council (Second) constituency, which have been called "super seats". All but one of the lead candidates are existing or previous lawmakers.

While the game is gearing up for the territory-wide ballot, 16 out of the 30 "original" functional constituencies have yielded their representatives without contest, setting another post-handover record.

Most of the candidates given free passes are current lawmakers, including Lau Wong-fat (Heung Yee Kuk), Chan Kin-por (Insurance), Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung (Commercial-First), Lam Tai-fai (Industrial-Second), Io Kwok-him (District Council-First), Wong Ting-Kwong (Import and export), Tommy Cheung Yu-yan (Catering) and Vincent Fang Kang (Wholesale and Retail). All three Labour seats were also filled unopposed.

Only 55 candidates joined the contest for the 30 original seats this year, down from 60 in 2008.

The most competitive functional seat belongs to the financial service constituency with five candidates. Timothy Fok Tsun-ting dropped out of the race for the Sports, Performing Arts and Culture constituency after winning the seat uncontested in 2008. Three new candidates will vie for the post.

A validated list of candidates, subject to the eligibility checks by the returning officers, will be gazetted later this month.

kahon@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/01/2012 page1)