Dem vet quits after 22 years

Central and Western council deputy chairman Victor Yeung Ho-yin has parted ways with the Democratic Party due to personal reasons after 22 years.

He is understood to have told party colleagues in an internal message group that he had already withdrawn from the party.

"Having been with the party for 22 years, I am grateful to have walked the same path with you guys. But I now have to leave due to personal reasons," he said.

Yeung was one of the few in the party to support colleagues wanting to run in last year's Legislative Council election after Beijing revamped the SAR's electoral system into one for that was "only for patriots."

After Beijing imposed electoral changes in March that saw directly elected seats slashed from 35 to 20, the party has been split over whether members should run in the general elections held in December.

Yeung was the one who recommended members to consider supporting two of the five non-pro-establishment candidates who ran in the elections - Jason Poon Chuk-hung in Hong Kong Island East and Daryl Choi Ming-hei in New Territories East.

However, he was not as outspoken as party vice chairwoman Edith Leung Yik-ting and member So Yat-hang, who face expulsion for publicly supporting non-members in the elections.

Yeung is one of three remaining councillors in his district after an oath-taking requirement prompted 12 councillors to quit.

He was one of some 60 pro-democracy district councillors who saw their oaths deemed valid in oath-taking ceremonies in October.

During the 2019 anti-fugitive bill movement, Yeung, a solicitor, helped his former party mate and lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung, who is now currently on self-imposed exile, filed two private litigations.

They include one against the traffic police officer who shot a young protester in the stomach in a Sai Wan Ho protest, and the other against a taxi driver who drove his vehicle into a crowd of protesters outside the Cheung Sha Wan government offices.

Yeung entered politics in 1999 with a Democratic Party run for a seat in Eastern council, but lost to Alice Lam Chui-lin from the Liberal Party by 868 votes.

He ran once again in 2003 for a seat in Central and Western, and won this time around over Wong Chit-man from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.

He was reelected in 2007 but lost to pro-establishment independent Malcolm Lam Wai-wing by 33 votes in 2011 after being targeted by People's Power, and independent David Yip Wing-shing by 69 votes in 2015. He was finally returned to the district council in 2019.