Wong Kwok-hing from the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions canvasses support in Kwun Tong for his fight to win the citywide District Council (Second) functional constituency in the coming Legislative Council election. Parker Zheng / China Daily

Wong Kwok-hing, who represents the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), hopes to retain his seat for the third time as he takes on the coming Legislative Council election. This time, he fights in a far larger battlefield, contesting in the city-wide District Council (Second) functional constituency, one of what are commonly known as the "super-seats", with close to 3.5 million eligible voters.

Apart from his labor image, he will carry the banners of "Anti-'Occupy Central', Anti-Filibusters and Anti-'Black Money'", which are scandalous terms closely connected with the opposition camp.

Wong is very famous for his slogan of holding LegCo meetings "day and night, night and day" to fight filibusters.

This is Wong's fourth election campaign in four different constituencies.

He first became a lawmaker in 2004 via the labor constituency. In the following term, he switched to New Territories West and won, before winning again on Hong Kong Island in 2012.

He has ridiculed himself as "like a cow" - symbolic of a hardworking person.

"It is a challenge for me to move to a new place and work like a pioneer every time. It is very hard work for me (I say I'm) like a cow because I was born in the year of the cow," he laughs.

As to his election strategy for a citywide campaign, he says the HKFTU is fielding geographical election teams in four constituencies except Kowloon West.

For the four geographical constituencies, he is teaming up with their candidates to campaign, while all election leaflets and banners carry both names. They call it the "1+1" strategy, telling people to vote for the HKFTU in both geographical and super-seat contests.

As to Kowloon West constituency, he has to run the campaign alone. Focusing on more populated areas, he targets office and industrial buildings along MTR lines before and after office hours and during lunch breaks.

HKFTU veteran Chan Yuen-han won a super-seat in 2012 with more than 246,000 votes, but she is retiring and will not run for a LegCo seat again.

Wong says he has sought advice from her and feels confident he can absorb all her votes.

"She is very popular and is an icon for labor affairs. Besides labor issues, I am well known for fighting filibusters. I hope people will vote for me as a voice for justice in a chaotic society," he said.

But some analysts say Wong cannot absorb Chan's support from the middle ground, women and the elderly. However, he has solid support from loyal people in the traditional left-wing camp.

Other candidates who have signed up for District Council (Second) constituency are: Lee Wai-king, Chow Ho-ding, Chan Yuen-sum, Leung Yiu-chung, To Kun-sun, Kwong Chun-yu, Ho Kai-ming and Kwan Wing-yip.

josephli@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/01/2016 page4)