'Turmoil Has Encouraged District Poll Candidates'

A political analyst and pro-democracy campaigner says months of turmoil on the streets have encouraged more democracy supporters to run for November's district council elections, meaning every seat is likely to be contested.

Joseph Cheng said many of the more than 1,100 candidates who signed up to contest the 452 seats by the close of nominations on Thursday were motivated by the debate over the now-scrapped extradition bill that sparked months of increasingly chaotic protests.

"From the pro-democracy movement's point of view, we now more-or-less field candidates in every constituency, whereas in the months of April and May we could not have candidates in 150 constituencies," he said on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme.

"Certainly the social turmoil in the months from June to September has much encouraged people to be interested, and new candidates who are not affiliated to any particular political party are ready and willing to run."

Polls for the 18 district councils are due to take place on November 24. Several pro-democracy candidates, including student leader Joshua Wong, have faced questions from returning officers on their political stance and have not yet had their candidacies confirmed.

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