Kowloon City District Council Explained

Kowloon City District Council
Coa Pic:Kowloon City District Council Logo.svg
Coa Res:180px
House Type:Hong Kong District Council
Body:Kowloon City District
Foundation: (District Board)
(Provisional)
(District Council)
Leader1 Type:Chair
Leader1:Alice Choi Man-kwan
Party1:Independent
Leader2 Type:Vice-Chair
Members:20 councillors
consisting of
4 elected members
8 district committee members
8 appointed members
Seats1 Title:DAB
Seats2 Title:BPA
Seats4 Title:FTU
Seats5 Title:Independent
Voting System1:First past the post
Last Election1:24 November 2019
Session Room:File:Kowloon City Government Offices (west side).JPG
Meeting Place:7/F, Kowloon City Government Offices, 42 Bailey Street, Hung Hom, Kowloon

The Kowloon City District Council 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

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

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

Elections are held every four years.

   Political partyCouncil membersCurrent
members
1994199920032007201120152019
bgcolor=  Democratic24721210
bgcolor=  Independent4458986
bgcolor=  DAB2326784
bgcolor=  BPA-----53
bgcolor=  Liberal2432111

Leadership

Chairs

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
Liang Tin 2000–2003
Lau Wai-wing 2003
Peter Wong Kwok-keung 2004–2011
Lau Wai-wing 2012–2015
Pun Kwok-wah 2016–2019
Siu Leong-sing 2020–2021
Yan Wing-kit 2021–2022
Ho Hin-ming 2022–2023 Liberal
Alice Choi Man-kwan 2024–present District Officer

Vice Chairs

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

References

22.312°N 114.1898°W

Notes and References

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