{"id":13265,"date":"2018-11-19T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T07:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=13265"},"modified":"2018-11-19T21:31:49","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:31:49","slug":"kowloon-west-byelection-lee-cheuk-yan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2018\/11\/kowloon-west-byelection-lee-cheuk-yan\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Cheuk-yan hopes to regain veto power for pan-democratic camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gloria Li<\/strong><\/p>\n

L<\/span>abour Party\u2019s Lee Cheuk-yan is running for the Kowloon West Legislative Council By-election as the \u201cPlan B\u201d for fellow party member Lau Siu-lai, who was barred from the by-election earlier. He says this seat is crucial for the pan-democrats to regain veto power in the Legislative Council.<\/p>\n

Lau Siu-lai was one of the six lawmakers ousted from the Legislative Council in an oath-taking saga two years ago. Though she set out to win back her seat through this by-election, her candidacy was disqualified because of her advocacy of Hong Kong self-determination.<\/p>\n

Lee criticises the government\u2019s act as it has deprived Lau of her basic political rights. \u201cThis is actually a violation of both International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Basic Law, because supposedly we should have the right to stand for election,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old trade union leader describes this election as \u201cvery unfair\u201d, which he believes is manipulated by the government as they can arbitrarily screen out candidates they dislike.<\/p>\n

Serving as Lau\u2019s back-up candidate, Lee is widely supported by the pan-democratic camp. This crucial seat in the Kowloon West Constituency will determine whether the pan-democrats can regain their veto power in the Legislative Council, after Edward Yiu Chung-yim\u2019s defeat in March\u2019s by-election.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne seat means one more voice for pan-democracy and one more vote,\u201d he says. \u201cSo [there is] more voice\u2026in monitoring this government and protecting the rights of Hong Kong people against the Communist Party\u2019s invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Lee faces an uphill battle as he is not only competing against pro-Beijing candidate Rebecca Chan Hoi-yan, but also veteran democrat Frederick Fung Kin-kee, who has parted ways with the pan-democratic camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Fung] does not include himself as part of pro-democracy camp now,\u201d Lee says. Fung previously protested against the decision to make Lee a back-up candidate for Lau Siu-lai without a primary election, but Lee fights back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of political moral, Lau Siu-lai should have the right to choose the Plan B,\u201d he says. He thinks it is more important for the camp to remain united to concentrate votes and minimise internal competition. \u201cIf you want to win, you should agree on a candidate and try to focus and push that candidate, instead of wasting time and energy on primary election.”<\/p>\n

However, Lee admits that Fung\u2019s joining brings about a \u201cvote-splitting\u201d effect that cannot be ignored, considering that Fung has been working in the Kowloon West district for more than a decade. \u201cThe only way out for me is to get as many votes as possible from those who have not voted before, to counteract the effect of Fung,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he believes his biggest rival in the by-election is \u201cpolitical apathy\u201d, which makes people unwilling to vote. \u201cWe want people who love Hong Kong, [those who] are concerned about the future of Hong Kong \u2014 the next generation \u2014 to come out to vote,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To improve the voting turnout rates, particularly amongst young people, Lee holds numerous street campaigns to explain his ideology and political agenda to the public. He opposes the \u201cLantau Tomorrow Vision\u201d reclamation plan and also calls for the government to transform large brownfield sites such as the Fanling golf course into residential areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a disadvantageous position, but we believe that we can win the hearts of people,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe are in a disadvantageous position, but we believe that we can win the hearts of people\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*The other candidates in the 2018 Legislative Council Kowloon West By-election are Rebecca Chan Hoi-yan, Frederick Fung Kin-kee, Ng Dick-hay and Judy Tzeng Li-wen.<\/p>\n

Edited by Angela Ng <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gloria Li Labour Party\u2019s Lee Cheuk-yan is running for the Kowloon West Legislative Council By-election as the \u201cPlan B\u201d for fellow party member Lau Siu-lai, who was barred from the by-election earlier. He says this seat is crucial for the pan-democrats to regain veto power in the Legislative Council. Lau Siu-lai was one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1072],"tags":[426,946,1126,423],"class_list":["post-13265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislative-council-kowloon-west-by-election-2018","tag-by-election","tag-kowloon-west","tag-lee-cheuk-yan","tag-legco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13265"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13272,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265\/revisions\/13272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}