DAB's Vincent Cheng Edges Out Edward Yiu In Poll

The DAB’s Vincent Cheng has won the by-election for the Legco seat representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency, in an upset over former legislator Edward Yiu.

Yiu – a pan-democrat – had won the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape Functional Constituency election in 2016, only to be stripped of his seat a year later for failing to take his legislator’s oath properly. Five others were also disqualified for the same reason.

During his campaign, Yiu had appealed to voters to re-elected to the legislature to rectify what he saw as the injustice that had been done.

But with voter turnout for Sunday’s by-election far lower than 2016, Yiu did not have the support he needed.

After a recount, Cheng edged Yiu out by 2,419 votes – a margin of just 1.1 percent, with 107,479 votes to Yiu’s 105,060.

The initial count also had Cheng winning by a similarly narrow margin, sparking Yiu to demand a recount.

Cheng attributed his victory to the pro-government camp's unity, saying the contribution of different parties was a "key" to their success.

DAB chairwoman Starry Lee described his win as a "breakthrough" for the pro-government camp.

The result means the pan-democrats – who had held all four seats up for grabs in Sunday’s by-election – lost two of the seats they previously held.

Yiu said he takes "full responsibility" for the defeat and apologised to his supporters for failing to come out on top. Yiu admitted that he "probably" didn't rally enough support in some areas, and didn't put up enough campaign banners. Yiu said it was his poor campaigning that cost the pan-democrats the seat.

"I have to bear all the responsibility of the result today, and I really have to accept the result because of my lack of experience and the inappropriate arrangement of the by election campaign", Yiu said.

But he insisted that the pan-democratic camp won't be disheartened by the result, saying they will carry out a thorough review "and try to win back all the seats and even more in 2020.”

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