Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Election Episode 8 Recap

"There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience." - Vladimir Lenin

Yip Ching (Angelica Lee) walks into the DALP office with Fong Kai Chiu (Alan Luk) and her campaign team. Ho Chun Pak (Samuel Kwok) gives her a warm welcome and expresses his hope that the internal election will be a friendly competition with no hard feelings in the end. However, discontent is written all over his face as he turns away.


Both sides prepare for the internal election in 10 days. Ho instructs his team to call every single party member and offer whatever money or favours it takes to get their vote. In another room, Fong analyzes the situation for Yip Ching. With 1,334 party members, they require at least 600+ votes to win. The youth faction can control about 200 votes, while Fong's wife, Mary (Anita Kwan), can influence the women's vote. Cheung Kwai Lung (Gregory Wong) takes Fong aside to tell him that the best way to defeat Ho is to find scandalous material. Meanwhile, an aide delivers a package to Mary.

The DNRA members are discussing a vote-buying scheme. They have contacted immigration centres and senior homes who can provide voters for a fee. However, Song Man San (Liu Kai-chi) is not happy with the numbers. He shouts that he needs 100,000 votes to ensure victory, not a couple thousand. He excuses himself from the meeting when his vision suddenly starts to blur. He staggers to the washroom and is soon staring at a sink full of blood from his nosebleed.

Later that night, Cheung quietly observes Fong hugging his assistant, Kelvin (Oscar Chan). On the ride home, Mary confronts Fong about the pictures of him and Kelvin that were given to her in the package. Fong agrees to a divorce, but pleads with her to continue to support Yip Ching.

Song meets secretly with his doctor to see the results of a CT scan he had done earlier. The scan shows that he has a brain tumour. The doctor advises him to immediately undergo surgery, but Song refuses and asks to be treated with medication for the time being.

The next day, Fong briefs Yip Ching before a meeting with the women's associations. Cheung senses that something is wrong. Later, he casually asks Fong about his wife and receives an awkward response. Cheung warns Yip Ching that they cannot trust Mary anymore because of her martial problems with Fong, but Yip Ching dismisses this as silliness.


In the meeting, Mary starts by saying that the ideal candidate should have good policies, qualities and foresight to lead the DALP. She is unexpectedly cut off by Yip Ching before she can name the candidate that best fit these criteria. Yip Ching goes on to give her own speech, outlining her philosophy and urging the party to unite together to win the election. Cheung waits anxiously outside for the meeting to finish. When Yip Ching comes out, she tells him that she ultimately heeded to his advice because she noticed that Mary had taken off her wedding ring.

Poon Tsz Wan (Eunice Ho) learns about the DNRA's vote-buying scheme from a source. Before each of the last few elections, a DNRA member would visit the senior home's boss. Afterwards, the senior home would receive donations from various sources. On election day, buses would arrive at the senior home to bring seniors to the polling stations and the seniors' hands would be stamped to remind them which candidate to vote for.

Poon is summoned to see Sum Suet Lai (Violet Li), who orders her to drop the story immediately. Poon staunchly refuses and is fired on the spot. She decides to release her story through the Internet.

Kelvin is called into Ho's office. It turns out that Ho had deliberately placed Kelvin near Fong to seduce him. Now he wants Kelvin to accuse Fong of sexual misconduct in front of everyone during the internal debate session. Kelvin appears reluctant, as he has developed a real relationship with Fong.

Cheung comes up with an idea to defeat Ho. He wants to paint Ho as an unsuitable candidate for Chief Executive by exposing the low-hand tactics that Ho uses to blackmail his own party members. However, this meant that they would have to reveal Fong's relationship with Kelvin. Yip Ching opposes this idea, but Fong is willing to take the plunge to help her win.

That night, Yip Ching receives a phone call from Kelvin. He makes her promise that she will defeat Ho and protect Fong. Shortly afterwards, Ho discovers that Kelvin has committed suicide at the DALP office.

One of the DNRA members is investigated by the ICAC for the vote-buying allegations. Song convinces him to turn himself in and admit that he had acted alone on the scheme, without any approval from the party or Song. The next day, Song puts on a show in front of the media, publicly expressing his disappointment in the actions of individual party members and promising to conduct a full internal review of the party's ethical standards.


Yip Ching and Ho are all set to go against each other in the internal debate. Ho unreservingly attacks Yip Ching, blaming her for Kelvin's suicide and questioning her motives for joining the DALP. She deftly rebuts against his criticisms and delivers her message of bringing renewal to the party. The two candidates continue with the heated debate...

The caption states that Yip Ching won the internal election with 775 votes versus Ho's 448 votes. Five days later, she formally submits her application forms with 633 nomination ballots and becomes Hong Kong's first ever female candidate for Chief Executive.

Election countdown: 62 days

No comments:

Post a Comment