DAB leader Starry Lee says party could put up its own chief executive election candidate in future

The city's biggest political party, the pro-establishment DAB, needs to groom more talent and strengthen its policy research so that it might put up its own candidate for chief executive in future, the party's new chairwoman told the South China Morning Post yesterday.

Starry Lee Wai-king was recently elected leader of the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong - the first chairwoman in its 22-year history.

Last Wednesday, the government unveiled its final package of proposals for electing a new chief executive by popular ballot in 2017, but it is unlikely to be approved in the Legislative Council as 27 pan-democrat lawmakers have vowed to vote it down.

Executive councillor and lawmaker Lee, 41, believes that even if the proposal is rejected, Hong Kong will one day achieve universal suffrage, when parties such as the DAB would "play a much bigger role" in the city's politics and governance.