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
Vice-Chair
Vacant
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

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 controlLargest partyYearsComposition
No Overall ControlCivic Association1982 - 1985
Pro-governmentReform Club1985 - 1988



Pro-governmentPHKS1988 - 1991



Pro-governmentLDF1991 - 1994



Pro-BeijingLDF1994 - 1997




Pro-BeijingProgressive Alliance1997 - 1999



Pro-BeijingProgressive Alliance2000 - 2003




Pro-BeijingDemocratic → DAB2004 - 2007




Pro-BeijingDAB2008 - 2011




Pro-BeijingDAB2012 - 2015




Pro-BeijingDAB2016 - 2019




Pro-democracy → Pro-BeijingDemocratic → DAB2020 - 2023




Pro-BeijingDAB2024 - 2027




Political makeup

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

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2024:

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

Leadership

Chairs

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

ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Lee Lap-sun1981–1983District Officer
G. W. E. Jones1983–1985District Officer
Wong Sik-kong1985–1994Nonpartisan
Tang Po-hong1994–1999LDFPA
Liang Tin2000–2003Independent
Lau Wai-wing2003Independent
Peter Wong Kwok-keung2004–2011Independent
Lau Wai-wing2012–2015Independent
Pun Kwok-wah2016–2019DAB
Siu Leong-sing2020–2021Democratic
Yan Wing-kit2021–2022Independent
Ho Hin-ming2022–2023Liberal
Alice Choi Man-kwan2024–presentDistrict Officer

Vice Chairs

Vice ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Lau Wai-wing2000–2003Independent
Chan Ka-wai2004–2007Democratic
Lau Wai-wing2008–2011Independent
Pun Kwok-wah2012–2015DAB
Cho Wui-hung2016–2019IndependentKWND/BPA
Kwong Po-yin2020–2021Independent
Ho Hin-ming2021–2022Liberal
Ng Po-keung2022–presentIndependent

Notes

    References

    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

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