Failure to woo working-class voters and localists cost Hong Kong pro-democracy stalwart Lee Cheuk-yan by-election, poll data shows
- Lee lost to pro-establishment rival Chan Hoi-yan, a former journalist and political assistant who took 106,457 votes, or 49.5 per cent
- His age and Labour Party background could have counted against him, analyst says
A failure to attract public housing tenants and localists led to Lee Cheuk-yan’s loss in Hong Kong’s key legislative by-election on Sunday, voting data suggests.
A total of 216,522 people, or 44.4 per cent of those registered, voted in the Kowloon West constituency.
Chan took 106,457 votes, or 49.5 per cent. Lee, running in place of ousted lawmaker Lau Siu-lai, got 93,047 – or 43.3 per cent – while Frederick Fung Kin-kee, a former ally of the pan-democrats, got 12,509 votes, or 5.8 per cent.
In the run-up to the by-election, critics said Fung risked taking votes from Lee and costing his former ally the battle. But the pair got 105,556 votes between them, 901 fewer than Chan, suggesting a split vote was, at the very least, not the pro-democracy camp’s main problem.
