Kwai Tsing District Council

The Kwai Tsing District Council (Chinese: 葵青區議會) is the district council for the Kwai Tsing District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. It currently consists of 32 members of which 31 are directly elected from the 31 constituencies of the district, one ex-officio member who is the Tsing Yi Rural Committee chairman. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

Kwai Tsing District Council

葵青區議會
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 1985 (1985-04-01) (District Board)
1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional)
1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair
Lo-Yuen Ting, DAB
Vice-Chair
Chan Chi-Wing, Independent
Structure
Seats32 councillors
consisting of
31 elected and
1 ex officio members
3 / 32
2 / 32
1 / 32
3 / 32
23 / 32
Elections
First past the post
Last election
24 November 2019
Meeting place
10/F, Kwai Hing Government Offices, 166–174 Hing Fong Road, Kwai Chung
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/kwt/

History

The Kwai Tsing District Council was originally part of the Tsuen Wan District Board until 1985, when a separate Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi District Board was established on 1 April 1985 due to the rapid expansion of population. It was renamed into today's Kwai Tsing District Council in 1988, making it the second youngest existing district council after Yau Tsim Mong District Council. The District Board was partly elected with the ex-officio Regional Council members and Tsing Yi Rural Committee chairman, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The Kwai Tsing District Board became Kwai Tsing Provisional District Board after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was established in 1997 with the appointment system being reintroduced by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. The current Kwai Tsing District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first District Council election in 1999. The appointed seats were abolished in 2011 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.

The Kwai Tsing District Council had been a stronghold of the pro-democracy camp from 1985 until 2015. Prominent pro-democracy politicians Lee Wing-tat, Sin Chung-kai and Leung Yiu-chung were among the seven pro-democrat activists to become the first members of the council. Lee and Sin had served as council chairmen from 1988 to 1991 and from 1991 to 1994 respectively, representing the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). The ADPL dominance was replaced by the Democratic Party when the ADPL core members joined the Democrats in the 1990s.

The Democratic Party with the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre (NWSC), which had a strong presence in Shek Yam and Kwai Chung, had comfortable control of the council throughout the 1980s and the early SAR period until their influence began to eclipse in the late 2000s with the pro-Beijing camp actively absorbed the former pro-democrat independents and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) developed their bases in the district. In the 2007 election when the pan-democrats suffered a territory-wide devastating loss which saw the pro-Beijing camp gained majority of the council for the first time, with the help of the reintroduction of appointment system, where the Chief Executive would appoint pro-government councillors to set off the pro-democracy influence.

In the 2015 election, the Democrats lost its largest party status to DAB for the first time in which the Democrats' seats were down to four by losing half of their seats including the seat in Shek Yam held by its vice-chairman Andrew Wan and the DAB doubled their seats from four to eight, despite the appointment system was abolished in the election. The pro-democrats turned the tide when they scored a landslide victory in the 2019 election amid the massive pro-democracy protests and regained the control of the council by taking 27 of the 31 elected seats. Notable defeated incumbents included legislator Alice Mak of FTU in Wai Ying, while Democratic legislator Andrew Wan regained back his Shek Yam seat from his opponent from DAB.

Political control

Since 1985 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Camp in controlLargest partyYearsComposition
Pro-governmentPCPHP1985–1988




Pro-democracyADPL → United Democrats1988–1991




Pro-democracyUnited Democrats1991–1994




Pro-democracyDemocratic1994–1997




Pro-democracyDemocratic1997–1999




Pro-democracyDemocratic2000–2003




Pro-democracyDemocratic2004–2007




Pro-BeijingDemocratic2008–2011




Pro-BeijingDemocratic2012–2015



Pro-BeijingDAB2016–2019



Pro-democracy → Pro-BeijingDemocratic → DAB2020–2023



Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

    Political party Council members Current
members
1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019
  Democratic 9 10 11 9 9 4 12
11 / 32
  Independent 9 13 9 8 8 4 9
12 / 32
  DAB 0 2 1 4 5 8 3
3 / 32
  NWSC 1 2 4 4 5 5 3
2 / 32
  Roundtable - - - - - - 1
1 / 32
  TYP - - - - - - 1
1 / 32

District result maps

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Notes
S01 Kwai Hing Leung Chi-shing Independent [lower-alpha 1]
S02 Kwai Luen Vacant
S03 Kwai Shing East Estate Vacant
S04 Upper Tai Wo Hau Vacant
S05 Lower Tai Wo Hau Vacant
S06 Kwai Chung Estate South Vacant [lower-alpha 2]
S07 Kwai Chung Estate North Leung Kam-wai Independent [lower-alpha 3]
S08 Shek Yam Vacant [lower-alpha 4]
S09 Tai Pak Tin West Kwok Fu-yung DAB
S10 Tai Pak Tin East Lau Kwai-mui Democratic
S11 On Yam Vacant
S12 Shek Lei North Lam Siu-fai Democratic
S13 Shek Lei South Vacant
S14 Kwai Fong Vacant [lower-alpha 5]
S15 Hing Fong Vacant [lower-alpha 6]
S16 Wah Lai Vacant
S17 Lai Wah Vacant [lower-alpha 7]
S18 Cho Yiu Vacant
S19 Lai King Vacant
S20 Kwai Shing West Estate Vacant [lower-alpha 6]
S21 On Ho Vacant [lower-alpha 8]
S22 Wai Ying Vacant [lower-alpha 8]
S23 Tsing Yi Estate Vacant
S24 Greenfield Vacant
S25 Cheung Ching Vacant
S26 Cheung On Tsui Hiu-kit Roundtable
S27 Shing Hong Leung Kar-ming DAB
S28 Tsing Yi South Vacant
S29 Cheung Hang Lo Yuen-ting DAB
S30 Ching Fat Vacant
S31 Cheung On Vacant
Ex Officio Tsing Yi Rural Committee Chairman Chan Chi-wing Independent

Leadership

Chairs

Since 1985, the chairman is elected by all the members of the board:

ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
John Ho Tung-ching1985–1988Nonpartisan
Lee Wing-tat1988–1991ADPLUnited Democrat
Leung Kwong-cheong1991–1994ADPLDemocratic
Sin Chung-kai1994–1999Democratic
Chow Yick-hay2000–2007Democratic
Tang Kwok-kong2008–2011Heung Yee Kuk
Fong Ping2011–2015IndependentBPA
Law King-shing2016–2019DAB
Sin Chung-kai2020–2021Democratic
Leung Kam-wai2021–presentIndependent

Vice Chairs

Vice ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Edinson So Hoi-pan2000–2003Liberal
Leung Wing-keun2004–2007NWSC
Alice Mak Mei-kuen2008–2011FTU
Law King-shing2012–2015DAB
Chow Yick-hay2016–2019Independent
Cheung Man-lung2020–2021Independent

Notes

  1. Former Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre member.
  2. Resigned on 31 May 2021 over new oath-taking law.
  3. Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre ex-member.
  4. Resigned on 10 May 2021 after being arrested under national security law.
  5. Unseated on 26 February 2021 after being convicted for illegal assembly on 18 August 2019.
  6. Disqualified on 21 October 2021.
  7. Former Civic Party member.
  8. Civic Party ex-member.

References

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