Popular talk show host Albert Cheng Jinghan has said that some pro-democracy members of the chief executive election committee have been trying to persuade him to run as a candidate.
Cheng, 70, told E Weekly magazine that electors had previously asked him to represent the pro-democracy camp in the leadership race in March. He added he heard that some have decided to give him their votes.
Cheng, currently in Los Angeles for the festive break, said he did not refuse the invitation, but his potential run depended on whether he has enough votes.
He said he was prepared to be back in Hong Kong in mid-February, but did not rule out staying in the US longer.
Cheng rose to city-wide fame as host of a Commercial Radio morning show more than a decade ago. His fiery style commenting on current affairs during the 2003 SARS pandemic won him the nickname “chief executive before 10am.”
He was fired by the station the next year. But he ran a successful Legislative Council campaign in 2004 to become a lawmaker, focusing on the issue of blocking Link REIT – which runs privatised public housing estates and shopping malls – from being listed in Hong Kong’s stock exchange.
In 2008, his company Wave Media received a licence to run digital radio broadcast channels, and he did not seek re-election. The company became DBC, before a management dispute led him to form his own D100 digital radio station channel.
Editor’s note: D100 provides free office space to HKFP.
