Kowloon City District Council

Kowloon City District Council

九龍城區議會
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Founded16 December 1981 (1981-12-16) (District Board)
1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional)
1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair
Alice Choi Man-kwan, Independent
Structure
Seats20 councillors
consisting of
4 elected members
8 district committee members
8 appointed members
6 / 20
4 / 20
1 / 20
9 / 20
Elections
First past the post
Last election
24 November 2019
Meeting place
7/F, Kowloon City Government Offices, 42 Bailey Street, Hung Hom, Kowloon
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/kc/

The Kowloon City District Council (Chinese: 九龍城區議會) is the district council for the Kowloon City District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Kowloon City District Council currently consists of 20 members, of which the district is divided into 2 constituencies, electing a total of 4 members, 8 district committee members, and 8 appointed members. The last election was held on 10 December 2023.

History

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The Kowloon City District Council was established on 16 December 1981 under the name of the Kowloon City 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 Kowloon City District Board became Kowloon City 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 Kowloon City District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first 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 Kowloon City District Council has been under control of the conservative and pro-Beijing camp and was the stronghold of the conservative Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (LDF) and its successor Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) in the 1990s and the early 2000s until the party strength was heavily crippled in the 2003 election and was subsequently merged into the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) in 2005. The LDF's main rival was the district-based Kowloon City Observers led by Ringo Chiang Sai-cheong in the 1990s until Chiang switched to the Liberal Party in the late 1990s. The pro-Taipei 123 Democratic Alliance also had their presence in the district, represented by its chairman Yum Sin-ling in Prince in the late 1990s.[1]

Riding on the anti-government sentiments following the historic July 1 protest, the Democratic Party took over the Progressive Alliance as the largest party in the 2003 pro-democracy tide by winning seven seats in total. Together with the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), the pro-democrats won the plurality of elected seats only being balanced by the government-appointed seats. By the end of the term, the number of seats commanded by the Democrats reduced to three and lost their largest party status to the DAB. The DAB since has become the largest party in the district, taking control of the council with the recently emerged Kowloon West New Dynamic, a district-based group uniting the pro-Beijing independents under Legislative Councillor Priscilla Leung, who was also the District Councillor for Whampoa East.

In the 2015 election, the new localist group Youngspiration which evolved from the 2014 Hong Kong protests contested in the Kowloon City District, with Yau Wai-ching unsuccessfully challenged Priscilla Leung with a narrow margin and Kwong Po-yin successfully ousted the incumbent council chairman Lau Wai-wing.[2]

The pro-democrats scored a historic landslide victory in the 2019 election amid the massive pro-democracy protests, taking control of the council by securing 15 of the 25 seats. The Democratic Party emerged as the largest party, overtaking DAB with 10 seats.

Political control

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

Camp in control Largest party Years Composition
No Overall Control Civic Association 1982 - 1985
Pro-government Reform Club 1985 - 1988



Pro-government PHKS 1988 - 1991



Pro-government LDF 1991 - 1994



Pro-Beijing LDF 1994 - 1997




Pro-Beijing Progressive Alliance 1997 - 1999



Pro-Beijing Progressive Alliance 2000 - 2003




Pro-Beijing Democratic → DAB 2004 - 2007




Pro-Beijing DAB 2008 - 2011




Pro-Beijing DAB 2012 - 2015




Pro-Beijing DAB 2016 - 2019




Pro-democracy → Pro-Beijing Democratic → DAB 2020 - 2023




Pro-Beijing DAB 2024 - 2027




Political makeup

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Elections are held every four years.

    Political party Council members Current
members
1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019
  Democratic 2 4 7 2 1 2 10
10 / 25
  Independent 4 4 5 8 9 8 6
6 / 25
  DAB 2 3 2 6 7 8 4
4 / 25
  BPA - - - - - 5 3
3 / 25
  Liberal 2 4 3 2 1 1 1
1 / 25

District result maps

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Members represented

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Capacity Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Term Notes
Elected G01 Kowloon City North Lam Pok Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Yeung Chun-yu DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
G02 Kowloon City South Lee Chiu-yiu BPA 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Ng Po-keung DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
District Committees Chan Chi-wah DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Ng Po-keung DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Leung Yuen-ting BPA 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Fung Mo-kwan Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Rita Lau Yuen-yin Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Wong Cho Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Cheung King-fan Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Ting Kin-wah Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Appointed Lam Tak-shing DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Poon Kwok-wah DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Felix Wong Man-kwong FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Steven Cho Wui-hung BPA 1 January 2024 Incumbent
He Huahan BPA 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Rizwan Ullah Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Vivian Wong Man-lei Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Lai Yin-chung Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent

Leadership

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Chairs

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Between 1985 and 2023, the chairman is elected by all the members of the council.

Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Lee Lap-sun 1981–1983 District Officer
G. W. E. Jones 1983–1985 District Officer
Wong Sik-kong 1985–1994 Nonpartisan
Tang Po-hong 1994–1999 LDFPA
Liang Tin 2000–2003 Independent
Lau Wai-wing 2003 Independent
Peter Wong Kwok-keung 2004–2011 Independent
Lau Wai-wing 2012–2015 Independent
Pun Kwok-wah 2016–2019 DAB
Siu Leong-sing 2020–2021 Democratic
Yan Wing-kit 2021–2022 Independent
Ho Hin-ming 2022–2023 Liberal
Alice Choi Man-kwan 2024–present District Officer

Vice Chairs

[edit]
Vice Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Lau Wai-wing 2000–2003 Independent
Chan Ka-wai 2004–2007 Democratic
Lau Wai-wing 2008–2011 Independent
Pun Kwok-wah 2012–2015 DAB
Cho Wui-hung 2016–2019 IndependentKWND/BPA
Kwong Po-yin 2020–2021 Independent
Ho Hin-ming 2021–2022 Liberal
Ng Po-keung 2022–2023 Independent

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ 鏡報, Issues 204-209. 鏡報文化企業有限公司. 1994. p. 9.
  2. ^ "Out with the old: Two big-name pan-democrats ousted in tight district council election races". South China Morning Post. 23 November 2015.

22°18′43″N 114°11′23″E / 22.31198°N 114.18978°E / 22.31198; 114.18978