Gary Chan reelected as DAB chairman

The DAB's leadership team stayed mostly intact as chairman Gary Chan and all five of his deputies retained their posts in party elections held on Monday. Besides Chan, lawmakers Elizabeth Quat, Holden Chow, Brave Chan, Ben Chan and Chan Hok-fung continued another term as vice-chairs at the city's largest political party. The only major change is that its senate is now chaired by a local delegate to the National People's Congress, Lee Shing-put, who replaced veteran Lo Man-tuen. Lo joins the likes of former party chairs Tsang Yok-sing and Tam Yiu-chung as party affairs advisors. Speaking at a press conference after his reelection, Gary Chan said the DAB will work closely with the SAR government to come up with its own five-year plan, so it can better align with the national blueprint. He said another focus is to conduct more research and strengthen its ability to grasp public opinion, to help with its efforts in offering views to officials during policy formulation. The DAB chairman also said the party has asked Peggy Wong, a senate member and Tai Po district councillor who used to advise the management committee of the Wang Fuk Court owners' corporation, to cooperate with the ongoing probe into the blaze that killed 168 people. "We are aware that the independent committee has demanded that Peggy Wong provide relevant information. We also demand that the district councillor fully cooperate with the committee's work," he said. "Because the probe is ongoing, we're not in a position to make any further comment. But if the inquiry finds any misconduct among members of the DAB, we will take the matter seriously and adopt a zero-tolerance approach like we always have." Edited by Edmond Fong