Non-establishment candidates who won a majority of council seats in Hong Kong’s professional accounting body are expected to vie for the organization’s top spot.

The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants will pick its president and vice presidents on Thursday. The positions will be elected by members of the institute’s governing body, where candidates from the pro-democracy and reformist camps previously won five seats.

More than 10,000 people voted in the council election, a source told Apple Daily.

All non-establishment candidates who ran won seats in the council. They include Alan Chan, Wong Wing-hei and Cheng Ho-long from the pro-democracy camp, and Au Ki-lun and Raymond Cheng from the reformist camp.

Pro-establishment candidates Nelson Lam and Loretta Fong were also elected to the council.

Raymond Cheng confirmed to Apple Daily that he intended to run for HKICPA president and said that many things in the institute needed to be set right. Asked about a 2006 scandal where he was fined HK$4 million (US$516,000) and reprimanded over his role in a securities company that misappropriated client assets, Cheng said it did not affect his present plans.

“I have served as an elected member of the council for 10 consecutive years and have the most experience there,” he said, adding that he holds other official positions as well, which showed that the scandal did not affect his career.

Wong and Chan said they would push to reform the council so that its president and vice presidents are elected by all its members and not just those in the council.

The HKICPA recently received backlash over new rules that required new applicants to the accounting profession to provide fingerprint data to the police and also go through background checks if asked.

The Accounting Bro’Sis Labour Union said the fingerprint requirement was “unnecessary and unreasonable” and said it planned to officially petition the HKICPA to cancel the requirement at its annual general meeting on Thursday.

Pro-establishment candidate Lam, who is the institute’s current vice president, said he was not surprised about the council election results but declined to comment further.

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