2012 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election

Democratic Party (HK) leadership election

16 December 2012

Candidate Emily Lau Sin Chung-kai Au Nok-hin Party Democratic Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 149 133 14 Percentage 50.3% 44.9% 4.7%

Chairman before election Emily Lau (acting) Elected Chairman Emily Lau

The Democratic Party leadership election was held on 16 December 2012 for the leadership including chairman, two vice-chairman pots and 20 central committee members of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong. The incumbent acting Chairwomen Emily Lau defeated deputy Chairman Sin Chung-kai by a narrow margin, becoming the first chairwoman of the party. 300 party members voted in the election.

After the devastating defeat in the 2012 Legislative Council election, chairman Albert Ho resigned as leader, citing failure to present a united front for the pan-democratic camp, failure to retain seats from the previous elections, and infighting between pro-democracy parties. The chairmanship was temporarily taken over by vice-chairwoman Emily Lau until the leadership election in the end of the year.

Emily Lau, prominent figure in the pro-democracy camp who had been legislator for New Territories East since 1991 only joined and became one of the two vice-chairmen of the Democratic Party in 2008 after she quit her group the Frontier as founding convenor. Emily Lau decided to run in last-minute candidate after repeatedly saying she would not run.

Tho other vice-chairman Sin Chung-kai was the founding member of the party had returned into the LegCo in 2012 for Hong Kong Island after serving as the representative of the Information Technology functional constituency for ten years. Sin headed a 12-member team with the slogan "breakthrough, reform, democracy". The Team included Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong and Lo Kin-hei who were both elected to the two vice-chairman posts."

Southern District Councillor Au Nok-hin who was 25 years old, joined the party in 2009 and was elected a district councillor in 2011. Au said he knew he had little chance of winning but wanted to demonstrate the party did not have a "big brother culture".

Legislator Wu Chi-wai for Kowloon East with 166 votes were defeated by Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong with 189 votes and Lo Kin-hei with 173 for the two vice-chariman posts, however still won the most votes for a seat on the central committee. Lo, 28 years old, became the youngest vice-chairman of the party's history.

11 of the 30 new central committee members were under 40 years old with the average age of 44, 4 years younger than the last committee.

Candidates

Chairman

• Emily Lau, Legislative Council member for New Territories East and the vice-chairwoman of the Democratic Party
• Sin Chung-kai, Legislative Council member for Hong Kong Island and the vice-chairman of the Democratic Party
• Au Nok-hin, Southern District Councillor

Vice-chairman

• Richard Tsoi, Democratic Party's Community Officer of the New Territories East Branch
• Lo Kin-hei, Southern District Council|Southern District Councillor
• Wu Chi-wai, Legislative Council member for Kowloon East and the member of the Central Committee

Results

Democratic Party leadership election: Chairman

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Emily Lau	149	50.3
	Democratic	Sin Chung-kai	133	44.9
	Democratic	Au Nok-hin	14	4.7

Democratic Party leadership election: Vice-chairman

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Richard Tsoi	189	35.8
	Democratic	Sin Chung-kai	173	32.8
	Democratic	Wu Chi-wai	166	31.4

Aftermath

Political analyst Ma Ngok expressed disappointment at the result and doubted the new leader could rejuvenate the party. "Lau is a veteran politician who first ran in a direct election for the Legislative Council 20 years ago. She belongs to the first generation, like Sin. She has appeared to be quite distant from civil society in recent years. How can she rejuvenate the party? She won by a narrow margin. Neither she nor Sin is a popular leader," Ma said.