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25. Whether the Scheme would ultimately succeed, it was not for this Court to speculate. What we were sure was that all the participants had put in every endeavor to make it a success.
26. From the evidence, the two principal organisers were optimistic about its success. It was not disputed that a great deal of time and money had been spent by the organisers into holding press conferences, coordination meetings and election forums. Opinion poll company was engaged. Fundraising programme was organised too. Political parties held high level meetings to discuss election finance, strategy and selection of potential candidates. Individual or independent participant called for volunteer to assist. Election teams were formed. Election slogans, manifests, leaflets were carefully considered and designed.
27. In order to participate in the Primary Election, participants had to gather sufficient number of signatures for their nominations. Election deposits had to be paid to the organisers. All these pointed to the fact that all participants wanted a successful Primary Election.
28. Extensive debates and discussions took place regarding the issue of replacement system in case of disqualification. In short, possible scenarios and consequences had been considered and discussed in coordination meetings.
29. In addition to the participants of Primary Election, D5, a non-participant, engineered the “Say No to Primary Dodgers” campaign. He spent substantial amount of money on advertisement. But for the COVID pandemic that led to the postponement of the 2021 LegCo
