North District Council

The North District Council (Chinese: 北區區議會) is one of the 18 Hong Kong district councils and represents the North District. It is one of 18 such councils. Consisting of 22 members, the district council is drawn from 18 constituencies, which elect 18 members, along with four ex officio members who are the Ta Kwu Ling, Sheung Shui, Sha Tau Kok and Fanling rural committee chairmen. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

North District Council

北區區議會
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 1981 (1981-04-01) (District Board)
1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional)
1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair
Vice-Chair
Lee Koon-hung, Independent
Structure
Seats22 councillors
consisting of
18 elected and
4 ex officio members
1 / 22
1 / 22
1 / 22
6 / 22
13 / 22
Elections
First past the post
Last election
24 November 2019
Meeting place
3/F, North District Government Offices, 3 Pik Fung Road, Fanling, New Territories
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/north/

History

The North District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the North 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 Regional Council members and chairmen of four Rural Committees, Ta Kwu Ling, Sheung Shui, Sha Tau Kok and Fanling, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The North District Board became North 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 North District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first District Council election in 1999. The appointed seats were abolished in 2015 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.

The North District Council is dominated by the rural forces and the pro-Beijing camp. The rural forces had been in control of the chairmanship until in 2008, when long-time councillor So Sai-chi of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) became the council chairman. The DAB achieved majority of the seats in the 2011 District Council election, taking 14 of the 17 elected seats of the council. The DAB majority ended when the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) councillors departed from the DAB in 2012.

The pro-democrats had established its presence in the late 1980s with Tik Chi-yuen and Wong Sing-chi of Meeting Point elected in the 1988 and 1991 election. Both of them became the Legislative Councillor for the Democratic Party. The pro-democrats achieved the majority of the elected seats in the 2003 tide of democracy following the 2003 July 1 march, but suffered setbacks in the 2007 and 2011 elections. In the 2011 election, the pro-democrats won only one seat, occupied by Democratic Party's Law Sai-yan in Luen Wo Hui. The pro-democrats regained a number of seats in 2015, with Democratic Party chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting won in Shek Wu Hui and was elected to the Legislative Council in the next year.

In the 2019 election, the pro-democrats took control of the council by taking 15 seats in a historic landslide victory amid the massive pro-democracy protests. The pro-Beijing parties almost lost all their seats, retaining only three seats with DAB's Lau Kwok-fan, the legislator for the District Council (First) functional constituency also being unseated. As a result, the newly elected Law Ting-tak became the first localist being elected as council chairman for the first time.

Political control

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

Camp in controlLargest partyYearsComposition
No Overall ControlNone1982 - 1985
Pro-governmentNone1985 - 1988




Pro-governmentMeeting Point1988 - 1991




Pro-governmentMeeting Point1991 - 1994




Pro-BeijingDAB1994 - 1997




Pro-BeijingDAB1997 - 1999




Pro-BeijingDemocratic2000 - 2003




Pro-BeijingDemocratic2004 - 2007




Pro-BeijingDAB2008 - 2011




Pro-BeijingDAB (majority)2012 - 2015




Pro-BeijingDAB2016 - 2019




Pro-democracy → Pro-BeijingDemocratic2020 - 2023




Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

    Political party Council members Current
members
1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019
  Independent 5 2 3 3 2 3 8
13 / 22
  Democratic 2 7 8 4 1 3 5
4 / 22
  DAB 4 6 5 9 14 8 1
1 / 22
  FTU - - - - - 3 1
1 / 22

District result maps

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Notes
N01 Luen Wo Hui Chow Kam-ho Independent [lower-alpha 1]
N02 Fanling Town Vacant
N03 Cheung Wah Vacant [lower-alpha 2]
N04 Wah Do Cheung Chun-wai Independent [lower-alpha 3]
N05 Wah Ming Vacant [lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 2]
N06 Yan Shing Vacant [lower-alpha 5]
N07 Fanling South Vacant [lower-alpha 6]
N08 Shing Fuk Warick Wan Wo-tat FTU
N09 Ching Ho Vacant [lower-alpha 5]
N10 Yu Tai Vacant [lower-alpha 7]
N11 Sheung Shui Rural Simon Hau Fuk-tat Independent
N12 Choi Yuen Vacant [lower-alpha 2]
N13 Shek Wu Hui Vacant [lower-alpha 8]
N14 Tin Ping West Vacant [lower-alpha 6]
N15 Fung Tsui Vacant [lower-alpha 6]
N16 Sha Ta Ko Wai-kei DAB/NTAS
N17 Tin Ping East Vacant [lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 6]
N18 Queen's Hill Law Ting-tak Independent
Ex officio Ta Kwu Ling Rural Committee Chairman Chan Yuet-ming Independent
Sheung Shui Rural Committee Chairman Hau Chi-keung Independent
Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee Chairman Lau Tin-sang Independent
Fanling Rural Committee Chairman Lee Kwok-fung Independent

Leadership

Chairs

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

ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
P.E. Johnson1981–1982District Officer
S. Harbinson1982–1984District Officer
I. Wotherspoon1984–1985District Officer
Raymond Pang Hang-yin1985–1994Heung Yee KukLDF
Tang Kwok-yung1994–1999Heung Yee Kuk
Raymond Pang Hang-yin1999–2003Heung Yee Kuk
Li Kwok-fung2004–2006Heung Yee Kuk
Lau Tin-sang2006–2007Heung Yee Kuk
So Sai-chi2008–2019DAB
Law Ting-tak2020–presentIndependent

Vice Chairs

Vice ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Cheung Fo-tai2000–2003Heung Yee Kuk
Chow Kam-siu2004–2007Democratic
Hau Chi-keung2008–2011Liberal/Heung Yee Kuk
Hau Kam-lam2012–2015DAB/Heung Yee Kuk
Lee Kwok-fung2016–2019Heung Yee Kuk
Chan Yuk-ming2020–presentDemocratic

Notes

  1. Luen Wo United member.
  2. Resigned on 8 July 2021.
  3. North District Blueprint member.
  4. Former Neo Democrats member.
  5. Resigned.
  6. Resigned on 9 July 2021.
  7. Resigned on 12 July 2021.
  8. Resigned on 30 March 2021 after being arrested under national security law.

References

    22.4946°N 114.1386°E / 22.4946; 114.1386

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