Yau Tsim Mong District Council Explained

Yau Tsim Mong District Council
Coa Pic:Yau Tsim Mong District Logo.svg
Coa Res:180px
House Type:Hong Kong District Council
Body:Yau Tsim Mong District
Foundation: (District Board)
(Provisional)
(District Council)
Leader1 Type:Chair
Leader1:Edward Yu Kin-keung
Party1:Independent
Leader2 Type:Vice-Chair
Members:20 councillors
consisting of
4 elected members
8 district committee members
8 appointed members
Seats3 Title:DAB
Seats4 Title:BPA
Seats5 Title:FTU
Seats6 Title:Independent
Voting System1:First past the post
Last Election1:10 December 2023
Session Room:Mong Kok Government Offices 20070911.JPG
Session Res:200px
Meeting Place:4/F., Mong Kok Government Offices, 30 Luen Wan Street, Kowloon

The Yau Tsim Mong District Council is the district council for the Yau Tsim Mong District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Yau Tsim Mong District Council currently consists of 20 members, of which the district is divided into two constituencies, electing a total of 4 members, 8 district committee members, and 8 appointed members. It was merged from the Mong Kok District Board and Yau Tsim District Board in 1994 due to the significant drop of the population in the districts. The latest election was held on 10 December 2023.

History

The Yau Tsim Mong District Council was established on 1 October 1994 under the name of the Yau Tsim Mong District Board as the merger of Yau Tsim and Mong Kok District Boards. The two original District Boards was established as the result of the colonial Governor Murray MacLehose's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Boards were partly elected with the ex-officio Urban Council members, as well as members appointed by the Governor. In 1992, the last Governor Chris Patten announced the small District Boards would be merged. As the total number of seats of the two boards were only 27, the boards were merged into Yau Tsim Mong District Board in the 1994 election with the appointed seats abolished.

The Yau Tsim Mong District Board became Yau Tsim Mong 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 Yau Tsim Mong 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 conservative independents dominated in the district as the lack of public housing estates made it difficult for the political parties to develop their community networks. The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) had been the three major parties which had continuing presence in the district, until in the 2007 election in which the DAB took a total number of seven seats, far ahead of the Democratic Party's one seat and ADPL which lost all their seats.

Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) Legislative Councillor Priscilla Leung's Kowloon West New Dynamic also absorbed numbers of conservative independents following the 2015 election and became the second largest party in the council. However, the pro-Beijing parties suffered major setbacks in the 2019 election amid the massive pro-democracy protests, while a pro-democracy local political group Community March emerged as the largest party in the council with the pro-democrats controlling the council for the first time.

Political control

Since 1994 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Camp in control Largest party Years Composition
Pro-Beijing ADPL 1994 - 1997
Pro-Beijing ADPL 1997 - 1999
Pro-Beijing Democratic 2000 - 2003
Pro-Beijing Democratic 2004 - 2007
Pro-Beijing DAB 2008 - 2011
Pro-Beijing DAB 2012 - 2015
Pro-Beijing DAB 2016 - 2019
Pro-democracy Community March → Democratic 2020 - 2023
Pro-Beijing DAB 2024 - 2027

Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

   Political partyCouncil membersCurrent
members
1994199920032007201120152019
bgcolor=  Independent6878859
bgcolor=  CM------5
bgcolor=  Democratic1441114
bgcolor=  DAB1227891

Leadership

Chairs

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

Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Chairman of Mong Kok District Board
and Yau Tsim Mong District Board
Mable Wong Chiu-woon 1981 District Officer
Wilfred Wong Ying-wai 1981–1984 District Officer
1984–1985 District Officer
Chairman of Yau Ma Tei District Board
Yip Wah 1985–1994
Chairman of Mong Kok District Board
Chow Chun-fai 1985–1994
Chairman of Yau Tsim Mong District Board
Chow Chun-fai 1994–2003
Henry Chan Man-yu 2004–2007
Chung Kong-mo 2008–2015
Chris Ip Ngo-tung 2016–2019DAB
Lam Kin-man 2020–2023
Edward Yu Kin-keung 2024–present District Officer

Vice Chairs

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Vice Chairman Years Political Affiliation
Ip Kwok-chung 2000–2003
Leung Wai-kuen 2004–2011
Ko Po-ling 2008–2015
Wong Shu-ming 2016–2019
Yu Tak-po 2020–2021 CivicIndependent
Chu Tsz-lok 2021–2023Democratic