Three's a crowd

As expected, it will be a three-cornered fight for the presidency of the Chinese party.


What was not expected was the former president stepping into the ring in an attempt - ill-advised or not - to bring normalcy back to the party that he left after leading it to heavy losses in the March 8 2008 general elections.


So the former deputy president will take on two former presidents for the presidency.


Meanwhile, the former vice-president will go for the deputy presidency.


The faction led by the former vice-president had linked up with the faction led by the former deputy president to force the fresh party elections.


What the (newer) former president probably is thinking is that with a three-cornered fight, those opposing him will be split into two which may make it possible for him to sneak back into the presidency.


Let's say the former president gets 40% of the delegates' votes and the remaining 60% is split almost equally between the other two contenders, he will retain his post as president.


Will that solve the problems affecting the party?


My view is that if the (newer) former president manages to win, it will be back to square one for the party because it was his management style that led to the problems in the first place even though he may argue that he inherited the problems from the (older) former president.


The best way out for the party is to give the job to the former deputy president, despite his DVD-stained past, as he has shown the best leadership qualities among the three contestants.


We will find out tomorrow (March 22) who the contenders for the other posts are and we should be able to gauge if there is hope yet for the Chinese party to continue to serve the community.