Just months after forming, the middle-of-the-road democrats have failed to make an impact at polls and have been stonewalled by like-minded politicians
KC.NG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 March, 2016, 4:48pm
Nelson Wong canvasses on election day in February. He took just four per cent of votes. Photo: David Wong
The chairman of the middle-of-the-road political party Third Side says the Legislative Council elections in September are its last chance of survival after the failure of plans to get like-minded politicians on board to expand its influence.
Third Side was humiliated in the February Legislative Council by-election when its candidate, veteran politician and former Democrat Nelson Wong Sing-chi, pulled in only 17,300 votes, roughly four per cent of the total.
By comparison, radical pro-independence localist Edward Leung Tin-kei, a political greenhorn, won more than 66,000 votes. The by-election was won by Civic Party candidate Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, who collected over 160,000 votes.
Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous waves next to a dejected Nelson Wong as the results of the February by-election are announced. Photo: Dickson Lee
Wong also lost his bid for a seat in last year’s district council elections with just 992 votes.
Party chairman Tik Chi-yuen conceded it learned “a good lesson” from the February defeat and said: “The September elections will be very crucial. If we still can’t win a seat, it would be very difficult for us to survive much longer. It will be hard to get donations if a party gets no seat in the council.”
Third Side raised HK$2 million at its inauguration party in January – enough to support its operations for one year. It would have to raise extra funds to support the election campaigns of its candidates, if any, in the coming elections.
Tik and Wong , both founding members of the Democratic Party, were regarded as moderates, but Wong was ousted last year after he called on the party to revise its stance and consider accepting Beijing’s political reform package for the chief executive election in 2017.
Tik Chi-yuen was regarded as a moderate in the Democratic Party. Photo: Dickson Lee
Tik, a close friend of Wong’s, quit the party later.
The duo formed Third Side, at that time a think-tank, last September and it was officially launched as a political party in January, advocating a moderate and middle-of-the-road approach to social and political issues.
Tik maintained it was the right path to take in the present polarised political scene and he still believed his party could win at least one or two seats in the Legco elections, citing his party’s analysis that 10 per cent to 15 per cent of voters would opt for middle-of-the-road candidates.
After the party’s defeat in February, Tik called on two fellow middle-of-the-roaders – Ronny Tong Ka-wah of Path of Democracy and non-affiliated Sai Kung district councillor Christine Fong Kwok-shan – to join forces to contest the September elections. But his calls seem to have been stonewalled.
Tong, who quit the Civic Party last year to form the think tank Path of Democracy, said his group was also considering fielding candidates in September.
“I keep contact with Third Side but it is not likely that we would co-ordinate with it in elections,” said Tong, “It is academic to talk about co-operation [with Third Side] as it does not seem to me they understand the ‘third road’ we are adopting. Nor do I know what their ‘third road’ means.”
I am not quite sure what his party is doing and what it wants to achieve
DISTRICT COUNCILLOR CHRISTINE FONG KWOK-SHAN
Tong said it would publish a book on “third road” politics in April to spell out his ideas.
Fong, a candidate in the February by-election, said she was not interested in joining Tik’s party.
“I am not quite sure what his party is doing and what it wants to achieve. Their stance sounds vague to me,” said Fong, who quit the Liberal Party in 2010 because of an internal party dispute.
“As an independent, it is more difficult for me to raise funds for elections. But more often than not, you can’t really act independently when you join a party. You have to toe the party line.”
She said she had not yet decided whether she would run in September.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1931776/legco-elections-our-last-chance-says-leader-moderate-hong
