Donald Tsang has virtually won the race for Hong Kong's chief executive (CE) post, the SAR's highest public office.

Flanked by his campaign aides, he walked into returning officer (RO) and High Court judge Carlye Chu's office yesterday and handed her his nomination paper with the support of most of the Election Committee (EC) members.

To be precise, the 3-inch thick bunch of papers contained the signatures of 674 members and letters of support from another 36 of the 796 EC members.

The overwhelming support for Tsang dashed any hopes the two other contenders, Lee Wing-tat and Chim Pui-chung, had of taking the battle for the CE post into the final round of elections.

Though Chu has not declared Tsang as the unopposed winner, such an announcement has become a technical formality.

The bypoll was called after former CE, Tung Chee-hwa, resigned on health grounds in March. The EC must hold a ballot to elect a winner if there is more than one nomination for the position.

But since the chances of either Lee or Chim getting the mandatory 100 EC members' support to necessitate an EC vote have been effectively reduced to zero, the two have no option but to concede defeat even before the nominations close at 5 pm today. And soon after that Tsang is likely to be declared the uncontested winner.

A brief statement issued by the RO's office yesterday said Justice Chu had examined Tsang's nomination paper as a CE candidate and found it valid.

A triumphant Tsang told the press corps trailing him that he felt excited about the support he had won, for he believed the EC members' backing reflected the views of the different community sectors and the masses.

"Just a moment ago, I handed to the returning officer, Justice Chu, my nomination form. The process was smooth," Tsang said as he left the RO's office.

"I fully understand that the support EC members have expressed represents the expectation, advice and blessing of many Hong Kong people in different sectors. I feel excited and (sense) the pressure of the undertaking."

A source close to Tsang's campaign office said he was likely to visit Beijing next week. According to the Basic Law, the ultimate authority to appoint Hong Kong's CE rests with the central government.

Though the campaign has reached the final phase, the source said, it will not prevent the CE hopeful from getting close to the people and his constituents.

He will visit Hong Kong Society for the Blind in Sham Shui Po this morning. And after that, he will return to his election office to meet EC members from the health services and medical sectors.

His campaign team is reportedly putting final touches to more such programmes to take him closer to the masses. Tsang has widespread support, from corporate bigwigs to grassroots leaders.

What They Expect from the Man

As Donald Tsang moved closer to the chief executive's (CE) post, Hong Kong's political figures made public their expectations from him establishing a strong government, boosting the economy and improving people's livelihood.

Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong Chairman Ma Lik said Tsang's most urgent tasks would be improving the standard of administration and the executive-legislative relation.

Since the Executive Council (ExCo) is the most important decision-making organ in Hong Kong, Tsang should appoint more people from different fields of society to solicit a wider range of opinions.

On the economic front, Ma said Tsang should ensure that the fruits of the economic recovery reached more people.

For Executive Councillor Cheng Yiu-tong, exercising cohesive powers to build up a harmonious society ought to be Tsang's top priority. Since Hong Kong has been a divided society for the past few years, Tsang must lead a strong government to avoid chaos.

"He also needs to push forth high-speed economic development," Cheng said. "If the economy flourishes, people's fury will reduce."

Liberal Party Chairman James Tien said that apart from measures to promote economic development and create more jobs, Tsang should maintain a good relation with government-friendly political parties in return for their support.

"The government cannot repeat the same old story of asking us to vote in favour of its policies in the Legislative Council (LegCo) after they have been finalized. The government should allow us to take part in policy formulation by way of thorough discussion and reflection of our voters' opinions," Tien said.

Since Tsang hasn't outlined his specific policies in his election manifesto, he needs to give an account of the major policy areas in his policy address in October, he said. For example, it's necessary for him to tell the public if he still wants a single-tender for the West Kowloon Cultural District project.

Hong Kong Senior Government Officers' Association president Peter Chan was pleased that a capable person like Tsang would be elected the CE. Since he comes from the civil service, he knows its operation as well as the aspirations and worries of the civil servants, Chan said.

He hoped Tsang would listen to more civil servants' opinions before formulating a policy and build a long-term partnership with them.

Hong Kong Association of Real Estate Developers president Stanley Ho said Tsang's election would be a good thing. Tsang knows the government operation well and that should help improve his administration and minimize disputes.

Among Tsang's nominators were "pro-democracy" legislators Albert Cheng, Albert Chan and Lau Chin-shek. Cheng hoped Tsang would pursue a people-based administrative style and handle the 2007-2008 constitutional reforms well.

Asked why he supported Tsang, Chan said he was definitely the best among the three candidates. He supported Tsang also because he had promised to help the disadvantaged people and tackle the widening gap income gap between the rich and the poor.

In a statement, Lau Chin-shek, who is now in Guangzhou, said he hoped the new CE would pay more attention to the under-privileged community and enact a law as soon as possible to make minimum wages and maximum working hours mandatory.

Admitting defeat on the heel of Tsang's nomination, Lee Wing-tat of Democratic Party said he had secured support from 50 EC members. Congratulating Tsang on his imminet victory, he said the party would participate in all future CE and legislature elections.

Also congratulating Tsang for his imminent victory, Chim Piu-chung another contender urged him to unite the different political forces to make Hong Kong's governance smooth and effective.

'A truly-representational ExCo welcome'

Chief Executive hopeful Donald Tsang proposes to revamp the Executive Council (ExCo) by inviting dignitaries from different walks of life to make it more representative of the people of Hong Kong, and non-official Executive Council (ExCo) member Cheng Yiu-tong supports that idea.

"It's a good thing to revamp the cabinet by appointing more non-official members," Cheng told China Daily yesterday. "It's the pre-1997 system, when ExCo was composed mainly of unofficial members from different backgrounds, of different thinking and interests."

If implemented, he said, it would not only help the government get the opinions of a much wider spectrum of society, but also go a long way in setting up an effective administration because it would reflect a more accurate people's reaction to a new policy.

The heads of policy bureaus, whether they come from the private sector or the civil service, are not always able to grasp public opinion accurately, said Cheng, who was appointed executive councillor by former CE Tung Chee-hwa in July 2002. That happens "because they always judge things from a technical perspective, without any regard to political considerations."

But "with more non-official and fewer official members, it'll be easier for the government to collect accurate public opinion and less likely for it to commit mistakes."

However, Cheng is unsure if the bureau heads would remain ExCo members even if they don't have to attend all the cabinet meetings. Tsang has proposed that they attend only those meetings that have matters concerning their departments on the agenda. If they're allowed to thoroughly express the pros and cons of their policies at the cabinet meetings and vouch for their effectiveness, they should be held responsible if things go wrong in the end.

"But," Cheng said, "this is a defective arrangement for, though a principal official should in theory be responsible for his department, the government ought to operate as a whole. For example, we saw only one or two principal official selling the national security bill two years ago, while other policy bureau heads were looking on. That in no way reflected collective responsibility. "

Citing an example, he said: "We need a banking kingpin to give advice on whether an interest rate change will create a big impact on economic development... Just like we need someone who is politically sensitive enough to see whether any proposed policy would harm the government's iamge."

He needs to elaborate more on his thinking to revamp ExCo, Cheng said but declined to say if Tsang, as the acting CE, had informed the council of the proposed change. "I guess he has already developed very concrete ideas but he hasn't had the opportunity to present them in detail during the election period. He needs to explain to the principal officials and unofficial members in greater detail."

It is generally believed Tsang doesn't have very strong ties with the central government like his predecessor Tung, Cheng said. "It takes time to build a good relation." Cheng, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), said: "The central government has great faith in him, otherwise it wouldn't have propped him up so much. But for any further trust, there need to be interaction form both sides.

"He needs to do more to familiarize with the situation on the mainland and to listen more to the so-called traditional leftists, including deputies to NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). "He has started doing so, for I know that he recently visited many cities and counties in Guangdong Province rather discreetly."

In his other capacity as president of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), Cheng and members of the labour subsector of the Election Committee raised a number of labour issues during their recent meetings with Tsang. But on the matter of minimum wages and standard working hours, Cheng had given the three unionist legislators led by Chan Yuen-han (FTU vice-chairman) a freehand to bargain with Tsang.

"Since they hold votes in the Legislative Council, they can bargain with him in a different manner and take a stand as tough as they can," Cheng said.

As to Tsang's utmost tasks, he reckoned that he should first kickstart the economy to make people taste the fruits of the economic harvest.

"We have reached a stage of structural unemployment and there's no way unemployment will drop to 2.35 per cent as in 1997. Since unemployment remains high and there are a very huge number of people who have been out of job for a long time, the government should continue to help these people through social security and retraining."

(China Daily June 16, 2005)