- Lee Wing Tat
Lee Wing Tat (zh-t|t=李永達;
Pinyin : Lǐ Yǒngdá; bornDecember 25 ,1955 inHong Kong with family root inHuiyang ,Guangdong ) is a Member of theLegislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), returned by direct election as representative of theGeographical constituency ofNew Territories West . He was the third Chairman of the Democratic Party (DP). He is seen as a conservative inside the party.Early life
He was elected vice-chairman of
the Hong Kong University Students' Union in 1979. He graduated from the Faculty of Science of theUniversity of Hong Kong with a pass.Fact|date=February 2008 He first participated in politics in the 1980s and was the Vice-Chairman of theAssociation for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). He was elected to theDistrict Council and the Regional Council in 1985 and 1986 respectively. He was a founding member ofthe Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China .In 1989, during the visit of
Geoffrey Howe to Hong Kong, Lee protested in the conference and called the speech of Howe "bullshit". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUZwgPGVeWA&NR=1]He left the ADPL and formed the
United Democrats of Hong Kong (香港民主同盟,港同盟), which developed into the Democratic Party in 1994. He was elected to theLegco in the same year. He once lost his seat in the 2000 election but was re-elected in 2004. He became the vice-chairman of Democratic Party from 2002 to 2004 and was elected Chairman at the sixth AGM of the DP in succession toYeung Sum . His challenger for the Chairman's postChan King Ming was elected Vice-Chairman instead.Chairmanship of Democratic Party
Chief Executive Election
He declared his intention to run in the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election , but only received 52 nominations and thus failed to get on the ballot. As a result, he withdrew from the election on
June 15 ,2005 . His participation in the election faced great criticisms within the party and thepro-democracy camp.Criticisms
Lee had been criticized for suppressing the second-tier members and "
Young Turks " of the party. In early 2006, someone alleged to the "Apple Daily " that some senior members were involved in spying activities of China. The "suspects" were all Young Turks members including vice-chairman Chan King Ming andGary Fan . The Young Turks later held a press conference to criticize the list of "suspects", some even directly point to Lee for the responsibilities.Departure
On
September 22 ,2006 , Lee announced that he will not seek another term for party chairmanship in the party's upcoming internal elections in December.External links
* [http://www.leewingtat.org/English.action Personal Website]
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