Former Hong Kong chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing have gathered enough nominations from the Election Committee to run for the post of Chief Executive.
Lam said on Tuesday that she has secured backing from 579 of the 1,194 Election Committee members, RTHK reported. She is the third person to submit her nominations to become an official candidate in the upcoming poll, following Tsang and Woo.
Lam failed to get any nominations from the 326 pro-democracy committee members.
Tsang was declared an official candidate on Sunday, after he submitted his application with 160 nominations a day earlier. Among his nominators, 35 were from the pro-establishment camp while the remainder were pan-democrats.
Woo was also confirmed as a candidate with 179 nominations on Monday, all from the pan-democratic camp. He said Monday that he will try his best to stop Lam from winning the election as she is more of an autocrat than the current Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
A minimum of 150 nominations are needed to join the election. The Election Committee will choose from the candidates on March 26. Candidates need more than 600 votes to win.
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, a Legislative Council member and a co-founder of the New People’s Party, is unlikely to be able to secure enough nominations before the Wednesday deadline.
Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, a lawmaker of the League of Social Democrats, said Saturday he will not run as he failed to get enough public support from an informal civil nomination process.