Tuen Mun District Council

Tuen Mun District Council

屯門區議會
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
Michael Kwan Ke-lin, Independent
Vice-Chair
Vacant
Structure
Seats32 councillors
consisting of
6 elected member
12 district committee member
13 appointed members
1 ex-officio members
9 / 32
4 / 32
1 / 32
1 / 32
17 / 32
Elections
First past the post
Last election
10 December 2023
Meeting place
2/F, Tuen Mun Government Offices, 1 Tuen Hi Road, Tuen Mun, New Territories
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/tm/

The Tuen Mun District Council (Chinese: 屯門區議會) is the District Council of Tuen Mun District, in the New Territories. It is one of 18 such councils. The Council consists of 32 members with 6 members of those elected through first past the post system every four years, 12 district committee members, 13 appointed members, and 1 ex officio member who is the Tuen Mun Rural Committee chairman. The latest election was held on 10 December 2023.

History

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The Tuen Mun District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the Tuen Mun 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 Tuen Mun Rural Committee chairman, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member. Rural leaders and indigenous inhabitants like Lau Wong-fat had dominated local political scene in the early and mid-1980s.[1]

The Tuen Mun District Board became Tuen Mun 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 Tuen Mun 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.

As a new town in the 1980s, Tuen Mun was a strategic target for emerging pro-democracy activists, notably the Meeting Point. Ng Ming-yum was first elected in the 1985 election with the highest votes in the territory and was re-elected with high votes in 1988 and 1991 and later on elected to the Legislative Council in 1991. Another pro-democracy party Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) and pro-Taipei 123 Democratic Alliance also established their bases in the 1990s. In the 1994 election, the pro-democracy and pro-Taipei together gained the control of the council.

The Tuen Mun District Council is also dominated by the rural forces. Long-time Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat was the long-time chairman of the council from 1985 up until 2011, and again from 2011 to 2015, on the capacity of Tuen Mun Rural Committee chairman. In 1994 when the pro-democrat and pro-Taipei councillors controlled the board, the 123 Democratic Alliance defected and elected Lau to be the chairman.[2] Lau chairmanship was interrupted in 2011 when his rural committee chairmanship was taken away by Junius Ho. Leung Kin-man of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), which rapidly developed its base in the district after the handover, took the chairmanship briefly and again became the council chairman since 2015.

The Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho was a long time councillor in the district, representing Lok Tsui, until he was defeated in the 2015 District Council election when he was ousted by Junius Ho, which eliminated Albert Ho's eligibility to run in the District Council (Second) constituency for the Legislative Council.[3] The Democratic Party also suffered a huge defeat in the district, dropping their seats from seven to four.

Amid the massive pro-democracy protests in 2019, Junius Ho who was a key anti-protest figure who was allegedly involved in the Yuen Long attack was challenged by Democratic Party's Lo Chun-yu in his constituency in the November election, with Lo's party winning eight seats. A historic landslide victory occurred as the pro-democrats took 28 of the 31 seats in the council with Ho being unseated. A localist political group Tuen Mun Community Network also grabbed four seats as a result.

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 None 1982–1985
Pro-government PCPHP 1985–1988




Pro-government Meeting Point 1988–1991




Pro-government United Democrats 1991–1994




Pro-democracy Democratic 1994–1997




Pro-Beijing Democratic 1997–1999




Pro-Beijing Democratic 2000–2003




Pro-Beijing DAB 2004–2007




Pro-Beijing DAB 2008–2011




Pro-Beijing DAB 2012–2015




Pro-Beijing DAB 2016–2019




Pro-democracy→No overall control Democratic → ADPL 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
  Independent 3 6 6 8 8 5 5
11 / 31
  Democratic 9 9 9 7 7 4 8
5 / 31
  ADPL 4 4 4 2 2 3 5
5 / 31
  TMCN - - - - - - 4
4 / 31
  Labour - - - - - 1 2
2 / 31
  DAB 2 7 9 11 12 8 1
1 / 31
  FTU - - - - - 4 1
1 / 31
  BPA - - - - - - 1
1 / 31
  EHK - - - - - - 1
1 / 31
  LMCG - - - - - - 1
1 / 31

District result maps

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Members represented

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Capacity Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Term Notes
Elected L01 Tuen Mun East Ken Fung Pui-yin FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Terry Yip Man-pan DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
L02 Tuen Mun West Chung Kin-fung DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Simon Tsui Fang FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
L03 Tuen Mun North Apple Lai Ka-man DAB/NTAS 1 January 2024 Incumbent
So Ka-man NPP 1 January 2024 Incumbent
District Committees Tsang Hin-hong DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Ching Chi-hung DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Chan Tsim-heng DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Johnny Ip Chun-yuen DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Jason Tsoi Shing-hin DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Leo Chan Manwell FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Kam Man-fung NPP 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Victor Kwong Man-tik NPP 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Stephen Chui King-hang Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Tse Yuk-ling Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Lam Tik-fai Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Li Chiu-hung Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Appointed Benton Ho Jun-hang Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Rex Mo Shing-fung DAB 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Tony Chan Yau-hoi FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Fung Yuk-fung FTU 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Chan Mang-yi Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Mac Chan Ho-ting Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Jeff Chan Kwai-wao Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Pamela Mak Mei-yee Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Kurt Tsang Hing-chung Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Wan Tin-chong Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Kenneth Yip Kat-kong Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Andy Cheng Yin-kwan Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Steve Tse Wing-hang Independent 1 January 2024 Incumbent
Ex Officio Tuen Mun Rural Committee Chairman Kenneth Lau Ip-keung BPA 1 January 2024 Incumbent

Leadership

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Chairs

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

Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Billy C. L. Lam 1981–1983 District Officer
Ricky C. C. Fung 1983–1985 District Officer
Lau Wong-fat 1985–2011 Heung Yee KukLiberalES
Leung Kin-man 2011 DAB
Lau Wong-fat 2012–2015 ESBPA
Leung Kin-man 2016–2019 DAB
Josephine Chan Shu-ying 2020–2021 Democratic
Chan Yau-hoi 2021–2023 FTU
Michael Kwan Ke-lin 2024–present District Officer

Vice Chairs

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Vice Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Leung Kin-man 2000–2011 DAB
Lau Chi-pang 2011 Independent
Leung Kin-man 2012–2015 DAB
Lothar Lee Hung-sham 2016–2019 FTU
Wong Tan-ching 2020–2023 TMCNIndependent

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Lau, Siu‐Kai; Kuan, Hsin‐chi (1984). "District Board Elections in Hong Kong". Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 22 (3): 309. doi:10.1080/14662048408447460. ISSN 0306-3631.
  2. ^ 田弘茂, 朱雲漢, 葉明德 (1996). 一九九七過渡與臺港關係. 業强出版社. p. 242.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Ng, Joyce; Lam, Jeffie (15 October 2015). "Hong Kong district council elections see record number of candidates in first citywide polls since Occupy movement". South China Morning Post.
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