‘Substance matters’ to voters: Michael Tien

Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said on Wednesday that he disagrees with Ronny Tong’s comments that people who did not vote should bear some responsibility for the failure of non-establishment candidates.

The Path of Democracy’s convenor Ronny Tong had said the non-establishment camp could have won around a sixth of the 90 Legislative Council seats if the nearly 70 percent of voters who did not cast a ballot had taken part in Sunday’s elections.

In response, Tien explained that in his New Territories North West constituency, the Third Side’s Casper Wong failed to win because he entered the race at the last minute and was unprepared.

“[If] I heard someone who claimed to represent me, [had] refused to do his homework, why would I come out and vote?” Tien said on an RTHK programme.

“A label doesn’t help anything, it’s the substance that matters, and I think this time, at least in my district…people clearly see the difference in substance.”

Tong, an Executive Councillor, had also said low turnout was responsible for the failure of the two candidates his group put up to fight for seats in Legco.