Saturday, September 3, 2016
As the Hong Kong legislative election approaches, six candidates considered to be in the pan-democracy camp suspended their campaigns on Friday. They were performing poorly in public opinion polls, and encouraged supporters to vote for other pan-democracy candidates instead.
The candidates suspending their campaigns were Sumly Chan from the Civic Party, Kalvin Ho Kai-ming from the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood, Suzanne Wu from the Labour Party, and independents Andy Chui, Paul Zimmerman, and Clarice Cheung.
Sumly Chan from the Civic Party and Kalvin Ho Kai-ming from the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood were running for the District Council (Second) functional constituency, commonly referred as “Super District Council” seats. Both of them suggested their supporters vote for pan-democratic candidates with a higher likelihood of winning, to continue the pan-democrats’ majority in the “Super District Council” seats. Kalvin Ho Kai-ming asked voters to choose a candidate with similar stance and ideology to his own party’s.
The four other candidates were all running for geographical constituencies. Both Andy Chui and Paul Zimmerman were running for the Hong Kong Island constituency, Labour Party chairwoman Suzanne Wu was running for the Kowloon East constituency, and independent Clarice Cheung was running for the New Territories West constituency. Zimmerman recommended supporters vote for Demosisto’s Nathan Law instead.
All of these candidates performed poorly in the public opinion polls. The 2016 Hong Kong legislative election is to be held on Sunday. It elects 70 legislators to the Legislative Council.