Under Hong Kong's unique political system since it became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong's CE is head of the HKSAR's government, which comprises legislative councilors from both geographical and functional constituencies. This arrangement means that Hong Kong has a Legislative Council (Legco) member representing IT: Mr. Sin Chung Kai. Along with his Legco duties, Sin writes a column for the Chinese-language Wen Wei Po newspaper and an op-ed column for Computerworld Hong Kong, and also serves as an elector on the CE Election Committee (this committee comprises 800 members, mainly from business and professional sectors--once elected, the CE is then appointed by the Central People's Government in Beijing).
The result of this process is predictable: current CE Donald Tsang will serve a five-year term once formalities are concluded. However, Legco member Alan Leong, who represents the Kowloon East geographical constituency, is challenging Tsang for the top spot.
Leong concedes he has no chance of winning the post, but wants his candidacy to raise discussion of Hong Kong governmental issues. Hong Kong is one of the more tech-savvy locales in Asia-Pacific--the HKSAR boasts a broadband penetration rate of about 80 percent and a mobile phone penetration rate of over 100 percent.
A group of IT Subsector Election Committee Members has organized an event to "meet with the IT sector to discuss the upcoming CE Election," according to their bilingual . The event, scheduled for Friday, March 2, is open to "everyone in the IT sector (whether you are a voter or not)," said the site, which added that "the Office of Mr. Sin Chung Kai - Legislative Councillor (IT) is a co-organizer."
"We have also invited Mr. Alan Leong and Mr. Donald Tsang, the two prospective candidates to attend," said the site. "As of today, Alan Leong has agreed to come." Also, "IT Voice is requesting a meeting with Mr. Donald Tsang to discuss about democratic development and IT development. We have opened our schedule to Mr. Tsang, hoping that he can squeeze one hour in his tight schedule to meet us." The group of IT professionals--including Robin Sarah Bradbeer, Edmon Chung, Francis Fong, SC Leung, Alan Lung, Charles Mok, Chester Soong, Lento Yip and Sang Young as well as Sin--said they would use their "paper 'The Information Society We Want' and some recommendations of democratic development" as a platform for discussion.