Frontrunner for the chief executive's (CE) post Donald Tsang is believed to have clinched almost 700 nominations from the 800-strong Election Committee (EC).

His position was consolidated after the majority of the EC members from the social welfare subsector agreed on Saturday to support him. That also ended Lee Wing-tat's hope of getting the mandatory 100 nominations.

Tsang inspected the community facilities in Tin Shui Wai new town and Tuen Mun district in New Territories yesterday, following a "secret" visit to Amoy Garden in Kowloon on Sunday.

Asked how many nominations he had secured and when would he submit them, Tsang said: "Well, I would try my best and (submit the forms) as soon as possible." He's likely to submit the forms by Wednesday, for nominations close at 5 PM on Thursday.

From 8 AM to 9 AM on Tuesday, he'll attend a live Metro Radio programme and talk to callers. And in the afternoon, he will have closed-door meetings with EC members from the health services and information technology subsectors .

So far, he has only one appointment, with the medical subsector EC members, on Wednesday. Since the meeting is scheduled at 4:30 pm, he's most likely to submit the nominations in the morning.

Yesterday, he was "welcomed" at the Tin Shui Wai (North) Integrated Family Service Centre around 10 AM by 10-odd former flat owners in the nearby Maywood Court. These people bought the flats during the peak period of 1997 but had been unable to repay the price difference to the developer because of the market slump, hence, they were seeking Tsang's help.

During his 45-minute stay at the centre, Tsang came across people from different places, including the mainland, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam. He was impressed by the new entrants' hard work and desire to integrate into the local community, promote neighbourly relations and earn their own living.

He was particularly impressed by a lady instructor from Guangzhou, who had volunteered to integrate into the local community.

Tsang said: "In a local community that lacks full-scale hardware and software, I can feel their enthusiasm towards their work. In the past, I mainly read such reports... but those were nothing compared to learning the difficulties of the frontline social workers and talking to them face to face."

The woman instructor, Ho Chau-sim, settled in Hong Kong about six years ago. Though she had been a teacher in Guangzhou, she could not take up that profession here because her qualifications were not recognized by the SAR authorities.

She wanted to attend English courses run by the Employees Retraining Board but found the tuition fees beyond her means. She finally decided to become a volunteer, teaching Chinese and the local way of living to the new arrivals.

Tsang also inspected a hair-cutting class but declined the offer to have a hair cut.

Later, at a Tuen Mun centre for the elderly people, he interacted with the senior citizens, watched them eat lunch, use the computer and even a group of women dance.

At the end of the visit and after meeting a 90-year-old Chinese calligraphy teacher and a 70-year-old dance instructor, Tsang said he was delighted to see the agility of the senior citizens despite their age.

Tsang's popularity continues to rise, with the University of Hong Kong's latest Public Opinion Programme poll showing 78 per cent of the people support Tsang to become the new CE. The other two contenders, Lee Wing-tat and Chim Pui-chung, could poll only 3 and 1 per cent support, respectively.

But only 34 per cent of the respondents are aware of Tsang's election manifesto, and the same percentage said they would like to see more contestants.

According to pollster Robert Chung, the majority of the people support Tsang on the basis of his past performance and not his election pledges.

(China Daily HK Edition June 14, 2005)