By Jennifer Leung
For Jeremy Young Chit-on, the Liberal Party’s candidate in Sunday’s by-election for the Peak constituency Distrcit Council seat, politics is in his blood.
His father is the former Liberal Party legislator Howard Young How-wah, and he started helping his father on his election campaigns from a young age. Young says the older man’s influence was what led him to join the Liberal Party and to serve the community. He joined the government in 2008, working as the political assistant to the Education Secretary until 2012.
As a resident of Pok Fu Lam, Young stood in the 2015 district council election for the Pok Fu Lam constituency, but lost to Paul Zimmerman. He says this loss taught him that to earn residents’ support he had to serve them in a concrete way, respond to their needs quickly and build networks with them based on a two-way communication.
“I have more confidence in winning, but you’ll never know what happens until the election day,” he says.
In late July, Young was asked by the then incumbent district councillor, the Liberal Party’s Chan Ho-lim, whether he would be interested in standing in the by-election for his seat, as he would be resigning to take up a post as a political assistant.
Young says he grew up in the Peak area and is familiar with local issues. He says he has been working on various issues around the district, especially the traffic problems.
“I have more confidence in winning, but you’ll never know what happens until the election day,” he says. He adds there are a number of unknown factors that could affect the polls, such as the weather, which could impact the turnout rate.
The pan-democratic camp has thrown all its support behind his rival, Edward Chin Chi-kin, but Young says this election is about choosing somebody who can serve the community practically, rather than choosing a candidate from a particular political camp. He says he is more suitable for the district, given his background and way of working.
Edited by Chloe Kwan
