A candidate standing in next month’s by-elections says she is confident she will win because God told her she would.
Joyce Chiu, who is running as an independent for New Territories East, made the comments on a live radio debate on local radio station Commercial Radio.
According to Apple Daily, she said she was confident she would win “because the Lord Jesus Christ told me I will win”.
“In 2016, I was praying in Israel and then I heard a voice, it was God telling me to run for election.”
She told the programme that when she returned to Hong Kong, she started attending prayer meetings to pray for Hong Kong. Again, she says, she heard a call to stand for election.
Chiu claims that though she didn’t reveal her plans immediately, another person at the prayer group was on the same wave length, and told her “God wants you to stand for election”.
When asked by the radio show presenter what will she do if she loses, Chiu replied “sorry, God told me I really will win.” When pressed again, she replied “there are no ifs”.
She’s not the only person who claims to have heard God’s call to run for office, in March, the then newly-elected chief executive Carrie Lam said God called upon her to run for the top job.
Predictably, internet heathens were quick to pile on.
A parody Facebook page called the Cantonese God suggested that God and Jesus added Chiu to a Whatsapp group chat.
Other comments by netizens included, “God really has a sense of humour”, “does the voice of God sound like Xi Jinping?” and “If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia”.
According to HKFP, Chiu is a retired nursery teacher who said she successfully raised enough money for the election deposit thanks to prayer.
She is also a member of the Family School SODO (Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance) Concern Group, which opposes same-sex marriage, and is led by Joshua Wong’s father Roger Wong.
The other candidates standing in the by-election for New Territories East are Estella Chan (independent), Gary Fan (Neo-Democrats/Hong Kong First), Christine Fong (Livelihood First), Bill Tang (Federation of Trade Unions/Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong), and Nelson Wong (independent).
