Hong Kong’s poll race starts for top leader

Bloomberg

Hong Kong’s election season officially began on Sunday, and despite a near-two month delay in proceedings due to a Covid crisis, it’s still wildly unclear who actually wants the city’s top job.
That’s about to change. Contenders now have two weeks to declare their candidacy and secure at least 188 votes from the committee of 1,500 largely pro-Beijing electors — or 0.02% of the population — who’ll decide the financial hub’s next leader on May 8.
The financial hub’s current number two official John Lee is forming a team to prepare for an electoral run, local media including the South China Morning Post and HK01 reported, citing anonymous sources. Lee is a former police officer.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked emergency powers in February to postpone the election, amid an Omicron outbreak that resulted in Hong Kong logging the highest virus death
rate per capita in a developed country, due to its under-vaccinated elderly.
Before that, Lam had been tipped as the race front-runner with local media calling her a “comeback queen.” But at a virus briefing she sparked rumors she wouldn’t seek another five-year term. “If the next government needs my opinion,” she said, “I will be happy to provide.”
The next Chief Executive’s term begins on July 1: the halfway point of Hong Kong’s 50-year transition from British to Chinese rule, which local officials hope President Xi Jinping will visit the city to mark. As the pandemic strains Hong Kong’s “one country two systems” set-up, pitting loyalty to the mainland’s virus strategy against global business needs, the next leader faces a difficult balancing act.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan, 67, hasn’t been overly involved in pandemic-related work, meaning he isn’t tainted by the city’s recent Covid failures. He’s also been networking more with mainland officials in recent months, the South China Morning Post reported.
There are other signs he might run. A week before Lam’s annual policy address last October, Chan released his own manifesto, the Business Environment report, which outlined how the city could better leverage integration with the mainland.
Career cop John Lee, 64, proved he had Beijing’s backing when he was named Hong Kong’s No. 2 top official in a June cabinet reshuffle.