Woo Kwok-hing

Woo Kwok-hing GBS
胡國興
Woo in October 2016
Vice-President of the Court of Appeal of the High Court
In office 1 January 2004 – January 2011
Preceded by	Simon Mayo (vacant from 2002)
Succeeded by	Wally Yeung
Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission
In office 23 July 1993 – 17 August 2006
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Pang Kin-kee
Personal details
Born	(1946-01-13) 13 January 1946 Jordan, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Spouse	Rowena Tang Siu-ting
Children	Alexander Woo
Alma mater	Ying Wa College University of Birmingham University College London
Profession	Judge

Woo Kwok-hing
Traditional Chinese	胡國興
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wùh Gwok hīng Jyutping Wu4 Gwok3 hing1

Woo Kwok-hing, GBS (Chinese: 胡國興; born 13 January 1946) is a retired Hong Kong judge. He was the vice-president of the Court of Appeal of the High Court and former chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) and commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance. In October 2016, he became a candidate for Chief Executive of Hong Kong in the 2017 election.

Education and legal career

Woo was born in Parkers Street, Kowloon in 1946 into a construction business family. He was educated at the Ying Wa College and graduated from the University of Birmingham with a bachelor's degree of laws in 1968 and University College London with a master's degree of laws in 1969. He was called to the English Bar in 1969 and the Hong Kong Bar in 1970. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1987. He was in private practice from 1970 to 1992.

He became the head of Department of Law & Business of Hong Kong Shue Yan College in 1986. He was appointed Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court in 1992 and Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the High Court in 2000. He was a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the High Court and was appointed vice-president of the Court of Appeal of the High Court in 2004. He retired from the judiciary in January 2011 and continued to serve as deputy judge until 2016.

Public career

Between 1993 and 2006, he was the chairman of Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) which is responsible for running and supervising elections in Hong Kong shortly after Chris Patten became Hong Kong’s last Governor and established the electoral organ. He handled the first three Chief Executive elections, which were won by Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang, in which he had to face public scrutiny and also interpret election rules. He was criticised of allowing Tung, to do his electioneering while still in office as Chief Executive in 2002.

He had led a number of independent inquiries, including the inquiry into the Garley Building inferno in 1996 and the chaotic opening of the new airport in 1998. In August 2006, Woo took up his post of commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance soon after retiring as the EAC chairman, in which he served until 2012.

In March 2007, he was appointed by Chief Executive Donald Tsang as the head of the commission to investigate allegations over meddling with the academic freedom and autonomy of educational institutions involving the proposed merger of the Hong Kong Institute of Education and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He resigned after less than a week to avoid potential accusations of lack of impartiality due to his working relationship with Fanny Law, former Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower.

2017 Chief Executive campaign

Main article: Hong Kong Chief Executive election, 2017

File:Woo Kwok-hing 2017CE.png

Logo of Woo Kwok-hing's 2017 Chief Executive campaign.

Woo became the first candidate to declare his campaign on 27 October 2016. He launched an offensive campaign against incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, questioning his achievements during his term while Woo himself was questioned for his lack of experience in public administration.

On 14 December, Woo Kwok-hing unveiled his electoral platform under the slogan of "Righteous heart, righteous way, revert Hong Kong back to right track". He proposed to expand the voter base for choosing the Election Committee to one million in the 2022 Chief Executive election from the current 250,000, rising to three million by 2032 and eventually quasi-universal suffrage. His attendees included Andy Ho On-tat, former information coordinator during Donald Tsang administration from 2006 to 2012. He later updated his platform adding the proposal of legislating Hong Kong Basic Law Article 22 which prohibiting mainland Chinese authorities for "meddling" in Hong Kong affairs as Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong had been accused of meddling with the city’s elections.

Personal life

Woo is the fourth child of the family. He has a sister named Wu Chiu-ha who is a kindergarten headmaster and a brother Woo Kwok-yin who is a lawyer. He is married to Rowena Tang Siu-ting, sister of Robert Tang, permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal. The couple has two sons and two daughters.