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Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai promoted unofficial primary election in 2020 and planned to back localist candidates to boost opposition, trial told
- Lai trial told his blessing of localist candidates could increase opposition chances of winning control of Legislative Council
- Witness says Lai told him he had obtained quote from European company to supply computer app to run unofficial vote
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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying promoted a 2020 unofficial primary election and planned to give his blessing to localist candidates to boost opposition chances of winning control of the Legislative Council, a court has heard.
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A prosecution witness told West Kowloon Court on Wednesday the mogul first floated the idea in late November 2019 after the opposition camp’s landslide victory in the district council election.
“He felt a primary could consolidate the votes of the ‘yellow ribbons’,” paralegal Wayland Chan Tsz-wah said, referring to supporters of that year’s anti-government protests.
Chan added Lai believed mainstream opposition parties could also benefit from the primary as the losing candidates’ votes would eventually go to those who represented the camp in the main event.
But Chan said Lai told him he would back fresh localist candidates instead of established opposition groups.
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