Legislative Councillor
In August 2004, Cheng decided to seek a political position, and joined hands with Andrew To Kwan-hang, then secretary of The Frontier and Wong Tai Sin District Council member, to contest the Legislative Council election in Kowloon East constituency. The swift approval of his application to relinquish his Canadian nationality by the Canadian government qualified him to run for the election. Cheng won a seat with more than 73,000 votes, the most obtained among the candidates. In 2008, he announced that he would not stand for re-election.
During his service as a lawmaker, Cheng was a member of the Public Accounts Committee and chairman of the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting. He was considered a pan-democrat in the legislature, but differed from the pro-democracy camp over the constitutional reform in 2005 and the nomination of his good friend Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as chief executive.
Read more about this topic: Albert Cheng
Famous quotes containing the word legislative:
“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society, depend so much upon an upright and skilful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)