Pro-Beijing camp faces uphill battle in Legco polls, says Rita Fan
City’s sole member of NPC standing committee fears pan-democrats will attract first-time voters
A pro-Beijing heavyweight has drawn a gloomy picture for politicians in the camp, saying they face an uphill battle in the forthcoming Legislative Council polls, with seat losses “highly likely”.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai – the only Hong Kong member in the National People’s Congress standing committee and a former Legco president – gave three reasons for her bleak forecast.
First, the last Legco victory for the pro-establishment camp relied on miscalculations in the opposition pan-democratic camp, which may not be repeated in September’s polls.
Second, the surge in first-time voters seems to play to the advantage of pan-democrats, as the result of the New Territories East constituency by-election showed they enjoyed higher popularity among this group.
Third, the rise of new political figures on the anti-establishment side has successfully yielded many of the votes. These include Edward Leung Tin-kei of localist group Hong Kong Indigenous who fared well in the by-election.
However, the pro-establishment camp looks set to enjoy at least a simple majority as half of the 70 seats go to functional constituencies, many of which are voted mainly by Beijing-loyalist “small circles”.
The Legco election results will be seen as a strong indicator on whether Beijing would regard Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying as deserving of a new five-year term next year.