Turmoil in the Democratic Party deepened yesterday as seven members quit – including a district councillor who had been expected to defend his seat in November’s polls.
The seven are Sha Tin councillor Chris Mak Yun-pui and six party activists in their 20s and 30s from Sha Tin and Yuen Long. They suggested the party’s New Territories East branch was not supportive of young members, unlike the party as a whole.
The resignations came after two founding members of the party departed in recent months.
It is understood the branch recently opted against supporting Mak’s candidacy in November. But Mak said that was only a “minor reason” for the resignations. Instead they were upset at the branch’s refusal to recommend three of them, Chui Ka-fai, Sung Po-yan and Li Chi-wan, as full voting members of the party.
“This exposed a serious problem with the system … so the seven of us decided to quit,” Mak said. They could not quit the branch without quitting the party as well, he added.
Time management was also a factor, the seven said in a joint letter on Mak’s Facebook page.
“Our work in the community and on the internet has occupied much of our time, we simply don’t have time for the party’s affairs … We hope that the friendship [with our allies] will not change,” they wrote. Mak declined to comment on whether he would run as an independent.
Democratic Party vice-chairman Andrew Wan Siu-kin admitted the incident would affect the party’s preparation for the district council elections.
“Mak is a very hardworking district councillor … and it affects us if he’s not running as a Democrat, but the impact should not be too big because the other members are not on our preliminary list of candidates,” Wan said.
But he rejected the idea the party’s image would suffer, noting other pan-democratic parties had lost members – most notably lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who quit the Civic Party in June.
Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing, a New Territories East lawmaker, said she respected the seven’s choice. “Our members will stay united and try our best in preparing” for the elections, she added.
The resignations follow the departure of two party elders. Tik Chi-yuen quit last month after Nelson Wong Sing-chi was expelled in July for calling on the party to accept a Beijing-decreed political reform package if certain conditions were met.
