Telecom and media entrepreneur Ricky Wong Wai-kay, who is considering running for the upcoming Legislative Council elections, says he has rejected requests to coordinate with other parties. Wong was speaking to local media on Thursday after appearing on Commercial Radio.
The entrepreneur announced this week that he is considering a run for the Legislative Council in order to highlight his stance that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying “must go”.
Coordination
He said that he received many phone calls on Wednesday, after renowned radio talk show host Chan Chi-wan reported on his show that Wong would run. Wong announced later that afternoon that he will make a final decision, as to whether to run, in June.
“I did not discuss coordination with anyone, but I did judge whether my election bid will [affect] the seats that the pan-democrats and pro-establishment [camps] will hold… I have thought about whether my election bid will take votes away from certain sides,” he said.
Public figures have called for pan-democratic parties and people to come together to coordinate election bids and voting strategies. Announced in early February, pro-democracy figure Benny Tai’s “Thunderbolt plan” calls upon pan-democrats to cooperate to obtain more than half the seats in the Legislative Council.
Preparations
In an interview with the Chinese-language magazine iMoney in January, Wong said he had believed that he would have “more than a 50 percent” chance of winning if he runs for LegCo. But he said he dropped the idea as he said there was “no point” in being a lawmaker as the current system could not be changed.
However, earlier on Wednesday, he told Ming Pao that he had applied to give up his Canadian nationality for the potential run. He said that he would not give up working at HKTV, even if elected.
Wong was a member of Zhejiang province’s political consultative body, but has said that he has no other ties with Beijing.
