Kwun Tong District Council

The Kwun Tong District Council (Chinese: 觀塘區議會) is the district council for the Kwun Tong District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Kwun Tong District Council consists of 40 members since January 2020, of which the district is divided into 40 constituencies, electing a total of 40 members. The council was created in April 1981 under the District Board Ordinance 1981. The last election was held on 24 November 2019.

Kwun Tong District Council

觀塘區議會
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Founded2 April 1981 (1981-04-02) (District Board)
1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional)
1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair
Vice-Chair
Lui Tung-hai, Independent
Structure
Seats40 councillors
consisting of
40 elected members
6 / 40
2 / 40
1 / 40
1 / 40
6 / 40
24 / 40
Elections
First past the post
Last election
24 November 2019
Meeting place
Unit 05-07, 20/F Millennium City 6, Kwun Tong Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/kt/

History

The Kwun Tong District Council was established on 2 April 1981 under the name of the Kwun Tong District Board as the result of the colonial Governor Murray MacLehose's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Board was partly elected with the ex-officio Urban Council members, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The Kwun Tong District Board became Kwun Tong 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 Kwun Tong District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first post-handover District Council election in 1999. The council has become fully elected when the appointed seats were abolished in 2011 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.

The Kwun Tong District Council is one of the largest District Councils in Hong Kong. Due to its large population, the political parties' influence was countered by the conservative independent community leaders. Because of the large presence of lower-income groups and industrial character, the Kwun Tong District Council has also been a stronghold for the pro-Beijing grassroots political groups, including the Kwun Tong Residents Association headed by Hau Shui-pui, council chairman from 1997 to 2003, and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and its Legislative Councillor Chan Kam-lam. It also the voter base of pro-democracy politicians Szeto Wah of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (PTU), and Fred Li of the Meeting Point who was first elected to the District Board in the 1985 election and got directly elected to the Legislative Council with Szeto through the district in 1991.

The pro-democracy camp first achieved more than half of the elected seats and took control of the board in the 1994 election. The pro-democracy majority was offset by the appointed members after 1997. In the tide of democracy caused by the 2003 July 1 march, the pro-democrats again achieved majority of the elected seats but was countered by the appointed seats.[1] The pro-democracy influence shrank significantly after 2003, with the Democratic Party dropped their seats from nine seats in the 2003 election to three in their territory-wide defeat in 2007 and had not yet been able to recover from it until the 2019 landslide victory which gave the pro-democrats the control of the council with 28 of the 40 seats and Democratic Party rebounding to the largest party status.

Political control

Since 1982 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Camp in controlLargest partyYearsComposition
No Overall ControlCivic Association1982–1985
Pro-governmentCivic Association1985–1988


Pro-governmentMeeting Point1988–1991


No Overall ControlUnited Democrats1991–1994



Pro-democracyDemocratic1994–1997




Pro-BeijingDemocratic1997–1999




Pro-BeijingDemocratic2000–2003




Pro-BeijingDemocratic → DAB2004–2007




Pro-BeijingDAB2008–2011



Pro-BeijingDAB2012–2015



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
  Independent 11 18 21 22 20 19 18
6 / 16
  Democratic 7 9 9 3 2 3 9
1 / 16
  DAB 4 6 4 9 12 10 6
6 / 16
  FPHE - - - - - 1 2
2 / 16
  FTU - - - - 1 2 1
1 / 16
  KEC - - - - - 0 -
0 / 16

District result maps

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Notes
J01 Kwun Tong Central Vacant
J02 Kowloon Bay Winnie Poon Yam Wai-chun Independent
J03 Kai Yip Vacant
J04 Lai Ching Vacant
J05 Ping Shek Lai Po-kwai Democratic
J06 Choi Tak Tam Siu-cheuk DAB
J07 Jordan Valley Ngan Man-yu DAB
J08 Shun Tin Vacant
J09 Sheung Shun Fu Pik-chun Independent
J10 On Lee Vacant
J11 Kwun Tong On Tai Lam Wai FPHE
J12 Sau Mau Ping North Vacant
J13 Sau Mau Ping Central Cheung Pui-kong DAB
J14 On Tat Hsu Yau-wai DAB
J15 Sau Mau Ping South Jimmy Chan Yiu-hung Independent
J16 Po Tat Vacant
J17 Kwong Tak Wilson Or Chong-shing DAB
J18 Hing Tin Vacant
J19 Lam Tin Kan Ming-tung FTU/DAB
J20 Ping Tin Vacant
J21 Pak Nga Vacant
J22 Chun Cheung Tse Suk-chun Independent
J23 Yau Tong East Vacant
J24 Yau Chui Pang Chi-sang FPHE
J25 Yau Lai Vacant
J26 Yau Tong West Lui Tung-hai Independent
J27 Laguna City Vacant
J28 King Tin Vacant
J29 Tsui Ping Vacant [lower-alpha 1]
J30 Hiu Lai Vacant
J31 Po Lok Vacant
J32 Yuet Wah Vacant [lower-alpha 2]
J33 Hip Hong Vacant [lower-alpha 3]
J34 Lok Wah South Kevin So Koon-chung Independent
J35 Lok Wah North Vacant
J36 Hong Lok Vacant
J37 Ting On Vacant
J38 Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate Leung Tang-fung DAB
J39 Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate Vacant
J40 To Tai Vacant

Leadership

Chairs

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

ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
David Tsui Kwan-ping1981–1982District Officer
Kevin I. K. Mak1982–1985District Officer
Lam Hang-fai1985–1994Independent
Winnie Poon Yam Wai-chun1994–1997Independent
Hau Shui-pui1997–2003Independent
Bunny Chan Chung-bun2004–2019Independent
Choy Chak-hung2020–2021Independent
Wilson Or Chong-shing2021–presentDAB

Vice Chairs

Vice ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Wu Kwok-cheung2000–2003Independent
Leung Fu-wing2004–2007Independent
So Lai-chun2008–2015Independent
Hung Kam-in2016–2019DAB
Mok Kin-shing2020–2021Democratic
Lui Tung-hai2021–presentIndependent

Notes

  1. Disqualified on 3 May 2021.
  2. Resigned on 9 July 2021 over new oath-taking law
  3. Resigned on 18 April 2021 after being arrested under national security law.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.