HONG KONG, 8 SEPTEMBER 2008 – Technology advocate Samson Tam Wai-ho has won the IT functional constituency seat in the Hong Kong legislative council election.
Tam is currently chairman of TechMatrix Research Centre and spokesperson of the Information Technology Alliance. He was awarded Ten Outstanding Young Persons in 1997. In 1989, Tam launched his digital dictionary “Instant-Dict”.
In his electoral platform, Tam says the HKSAR Government lacks a long-term strategy and fails to see that IT holds the key to their future prosperity. Tam’s mission is to help unleash the potential of IT by making it an industry for “business creation, production creation and job creation” and “let IT lead”.
HK Legislative Council
The Hong Kong legislative council is composed by 60 seats, of which half their members to be returned from geographical constituencies, and half to be returned from functional constituencies.
A functional constituency is a professional or special interest group involved in the electoral process. Under the present political system, there are 16 functional constituencies including insurance, education, accountancy, health services, tourism, IT, legal, and medical.
Tam polled 2,017 votes, 0.01 per cent ahead of his opponent, Charles Mok, who secured 1,982 votes. The turnout rate was 64.81 per cent.
The term of office of the newly elected Legislative Council members will begin on 1 October 2008 and will last for four years.
