Lam pledges to work hard to win more votes

With polling day only two weeks away, Chief Executive election candidate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she will work very hard to earn as many votes as possible.

Lam said she was very grateful for the trust the central government had in her. This was due her diligent efforts over the years as chief secretary for administration of the SAR government.

“This sort of trust and faith was built on solid foundations, rather than subjective preference or me being the only woman among the three candidates,” she told China Daily.

“As chief secretary and the No 2 official of Hong Kong SAR, I led a constitutional development task force for 20 months. They know what type of person I am and my core values,” Lam stressed.

In addition, she co-chaired a number of coordination meetings with Guangdong and Fujian officials. While she was secretary for development from 2007 to 2012, she oversaw the Hong Kong-aided reconstruction program of Wenchuan in Sichuan province following the devastating earthquake in 2008.

She said she was looking forward to the debate forum on Sunday organized by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union. This is the first one that all the three candidates will attend, a chance for voters to ask questions.

The two other candidates in the CE election race are ex-financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.

Lam has secured 580 nominations from various sub-sectors of the Election Committee to qualify as an election candidate. This is only 21 votes from fulfilling the requirement of 601 votes to win the election.

She said she will continue to work very hard to win as many votes as possible. But she is unwilling to predict how many votes she will get.

Discussing whether she would win votes from “pandemocrats”, Lam said there was a chance. This was because voting takes the form of a secret ballot.

This sort of trust and faith (from the central government) was built on solid foundations, rather than subjective preference or me being the only woman among the three candidates.” Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Chief Executive candidate

EDMOND TANG / Chief Executive contender Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said in an interview with China Daily she felt very honored that the central government has faith in her.