Current councilor Mark Lin's banner on the street

Following Liberal Party chairman James Tien ’s controversial statement and later apology to MTR corporation's chief executive Mr. Chow Chung-kong, the Peak constituency could not be a hotter race in this year's District Council elections.

The story began last month when James Tien publicly threatened tighter scrutiny on MTR Corporation’s bills to the Legislative Council by his party as Chow was found to be one of the nominators of Tanya Chan , who is from Tien’s rival Civic Party, for the District Council election. The statement was widely criticized and viewed as a blatant exchange of political interest. Tien later withdrew his speech and issued an apology.

Final result for district council election 2003

Despite the controversy, Mark Lin from the Liberal Party will put his popularity to the test as he will run for his second term of office. Tanya Chan, a rising star in the Civic Party, will be a hopeful challenger in the believed-to-be Liberal Party’s turf. While independent candidate Louis Leung , also the first directly elected district councilor of the Peak in 1994, remains optimistic that he can snatch a win amid up scaling fight among political parties. He lost by 113 votes to Mark Lin in 2003 .

However there was media reporting that the attendance of Mark Lin in District Council meetings was relatively low: only 66% for the Council meeting throughout his term, though some voters said they would still vote for him for various reasons.

Mrs. Hui, voter

Ms. Tunik, voter

“Because he got the experience, he knows what to do,” said Mrs Hui, thinking that the current councilor would be more experienced. She also hoped that the District Council could do more on facilities building as the Peak is far away from city center.

Mrs. Tunik supports Mark Lin for another reason; she said, “I just want to support his party.”

Mr. Fussen, voter

But there were still some undecided voters.

Indeed, the candidates are facing tough challenge in carrying their campaign. One of the districts in the Central and Western Council, the Peak has a very low population density, making publicity events less effective. There are 4525 eligible voters this year and most of them are extremely wealthy, including expatriates who long worked and lived in Hong Kong. The Peak constituency had a turnover of about 33 per cent in 2003, lower than the average in the city, which is 44.1 per cent .

Louis Leung dilivering leaflet on street

Backed financially by their parties, Tanya Chan and Mark Lin each placed ads covering the outside of mini-buses running the route from the Peak to Central, while financially challenged Louis Leung said he could only afford traditional way like posters and banners. Still, reaching potential voters could be hard.

“They will drive their car directly from their house, not even from the main door, but indoor,” he said. “The only way we can do maybe: in the morning, say hello to them by waiting their cars!”

He also talked about his competitive edge over the other two candidates during an interview with us. Since by the time we publish this article, Mark Lin has turned down our interview invitation and Tanya Chan has not responded, we decided not to discuss the matter here. For those who are interested, more on the interview with Louis Leung’s can be accessed on the next page.