Campaign manager upbeat on former CS’s chances

Chief Executive candidate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has a realistic chance of winning the election on Sunday, her campaign manager Bernard Chan believes.

Chan, who is also an executive councilor and a National People’s Congress deputy, told China Daily that Lam was a pragmatic person with a down-to-earth manner. He said the former chief secretary for administration (CS) had worked very hard to for- mulate her directions.

Chan is confident that she will snatch more than 700 votes, exceeding the number needed to win the election, including some votes from the opposition camp.

“She will gain tens of votes from certain sectors in the opposite camp because she had very good discussions with them. They know she can solve their problems,” Chan said.

In comparison, Chan said another Chief Executive candidate, former financial sec- future policy retary John Tsang Chunwah, had offered very little in key policy areas, including housing, education and taxation. Chan said Tsang had just engaged in sweet-talking to appease the public.

“Tsang has created the impression that he is ‘the representative of the opposition camp’. But if he won, the opposition would not be kind to him. They could pressure him (to yield) on critical issues like reopening the electoral reform and not legislating the national security law under Article 23 of the Basic Law,” Chan said.

About 80 percent of Tsang’s nominations had been from the opposition camp. The third CE candidate in the race is retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.

At the election forum last week, Tsang said Lam’s relations with civil servants were not good. There was also an anonymous news report that Lam had scolded a senior female official until she burst into tears. However, that official and her husband both refuted this.

“The only fault they could find with her is her style – her personality. They dub her a person who is hard to work with and unable to unite society,” he said. “I know many civil servants who like her but it is impossible that someone will be liked by all civil servants.”

Since civil servants are politically neutral, it is unnecessary and unhealthy to drag them into political controversy, said Chan.

He added that if elected, Lam would prove herself to be a pleasant person to work with.