Despite facing a rioting charge, localist Edward Leung garnered 16 per cent of Legco by-election votes. Who voted for him ... and why?
Radical localist Edward Leung won 15.4 per cent of the vote, enough for some analysts to declare the emergence of a new force in the political landscape
Edward Leung Tin-kei, the localist who was a nobody prior to the Mong Kong riot, stunned pundits and politicians alike by clinching 15.4 per cent of total valid votes cast in Sunday’s Legislative Council by-election for the New Territories East constituency.
The million-dollar question now is – who are the supporters of the 24-year-old University of Hong Kong philosophy student?
According to a study of the vote share of candidates by the South China Morning Post, Leung scored a remarkable performance in public housing estates. Of the five polling stations which saw his highest share of votes among the seven candidates, four were in public housing estates.
He clinched nearly 30 per cent of the vote in the polling station at Sheung Tak Community Hall in Tseung Kwan O, and 28.2 per cent in Fung Kai Liu Yun Sum Memorial School, Fanling.
Watch: Localist candidate Edward Leung Tin-kei attempts to become Hong Kong’s youngest lawmaker
Leung, spokesman for Hong Kong Indigenous, won 22.8 per cent of total votes cast in HHCKLA Buddhist Po Kwong School in Fanling. The polling station is near Yan Shing Court, a Home Ownership Scheme estate where household incomes are higher than in public housing estates.