In the last part of our series on how Legislative Council candidates responded to the questions first time voters told us they most wanted to know, we bring you District Council “Superseats”. With the withdrawal of the Civic Party’s Sumly Chan Yuen-sum, the ADPL’s Kalvin Ho Kai-ming and Neo-Democrat Kwan Wing-yip from the race, there are now six lists still competing for the five seats up for grabs. Competition is tight between the Democratic Party’s Roy Kwong Chun-yu and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong’s (DAB) Holden Chow Ho-ding.
Unfortunately neither Chow nor any of the other DAB candidate lists responded to our questionnaires. The tables showing the answers we received are below.
Varsity interviewed 10 first-time voters to come up with the questions they care about the most. We selected 10, covering political, economic, social and educational issues and sent them to candidates from the five geographical constituencies and the District Council functional constituency. Out of 93 candidate lists, 40 replied. Ricky Wong Wai-kay, Kwok Wai-keung (Federation of Trade Unions) and candidates from the New People’s Party directly refused to answer, while others (including candidates from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong and Youngspiration did not respond or could not be contacted.
Here are the questions we sent to candidates in full:
- Do you support universal suffrage for Chief Executive without pre-selection of candidates?
- Do you think it’s reasonable to disqualify candidates based on their political beliefs and platforms?
- Do you think independence of Hong Kong is practicable?
- Would you support a second term for Leung Chun-ying as Chief Exectuive?
- Do you support a government buy-back of the MTR?
- Do you support a government buy-back of The LINK?
- Do you think the police force has been abusing its powers in recent years?
- Do you think the government should issue more hawker licences?
- Do you support the abolition of the TSA exams for primary three schoolchildren?
- Do you support think the teaching of Chinese in Putonghua should be a long-term goal for Hong Kong schools?
Non-responders: 802 Starry Lee Wai-king (DAB); 804 Kalvin Ho Kai-ming (ADPL); 806 Wong Kwok-hing (FTU); 809 Holden Chow Ho-ding (DAB)
