Kwai Tsing District Council

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Template other The Kwai Tsing District Council (Template:Zh) is the district council for the Kwai Tsing District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. It currently consists of 32 members of which 6 are directly elected from the three constituencies of the district, 12 district committee members, 13 appointed members, and one ex-officio member who is the Tsing Yi Rural Committee chairman. The latest election was held on 10 December 2023.

History

The Kwai Tsing District Council was originally part of the Tsuen Wan District Board until 1985, when a separate Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi District Board was established on 1 April 1985 due to the rapid expansion of population. It was renamed into today's Kwai Tsing District Council in 1988, making it the second youngest existing district council after Yau Tsim Mong District Council. The District Board was partly elected with the ex-officio Regional Council members and Tsing Yi Rural Committee chairman, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The Kwai Tsing District Board became Kwai Tsing 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 Kwai Tsing District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first District Council election in 1999. The appointed seats were abolished in 2011 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.

The Kwai Tsing District Council had been a stronghold of the pro-democracy camp from 1985 until 2015. Prominent pro-democracy politicians Lee Wing-tat, Sin Chung-kai and Leung Yiu-chung were among the seven pro-democrat activists to become the first members of the council. Lee and Sin had served as council chairmen from 1988 to 1991 and from 1991 to 1994 respectively, representing the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). The ADPL dominance was replaced by the Democratic Party when the ADPL core members joined the Democrats in the 1990s.

The Democratic Party with the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre (NWSC), which had a strong presence in Shek Yam and Kwai Chung, had comfortable control of the council throughout the 1980s and the early SAR period until their influence began to eclipse in the late 2000s with the pro-Beijing camp actively absorbed the former pro-democrat independents and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) developed their bases in the district. In the 2007 election when the pan-democrats suffered a territory-wide devastating loss which saw the pro-Beijing camp gained majority of the council for the first time, with the help of the reintroduction of appointment system, where the Chief Executive would appoint pro-government councillors to set off the pro-democracy influence.

In the 2015 election, the Democrats lost its largest party status to DAB for the first time in which the Democrats' seats were down to four by losing half of their seats including the seat in Shek Yam held by its vice-chairman Andrew Wan and the DAB doubled their seats from four to eight, despite the appointment system was abolished in the election. The pro-democrats turned the tide when they scored a landslide victory in the 2019 election amid the massive pro-democracy protests and regained the control of the council by taking 27 of the 31 elected seats. Notable defeated incumbents included legislator Alice Mak of FTU in Wai Ying, while Democratic legislator Andrew Wan regained back his Shek Yam seat from his opponent from DAB.

Political control

Since 1985 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Camp in control	Largest party	Years	Composition
Pro-government	PCPHP	1985–1988	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	ADPL → United Democrats	1988–1991	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	United Democrats	1991–1994	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	Democratic	1994–1997	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	Democratic	1997–1999	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	Democratic	2000–2003	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy	Democratic	2004–2007	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2008–2011	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2012–2015	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2016–2019	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-democracy → Pro-Beijing	Democratic → DAB	2020–2023	Template:Composition bar/advanced
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2024–2027	Template:Composition bar/advanced

Political makeup

File:Current Map of Kwai Tsing District Council.svg

Elections are held every four years.

	Political party	Council members							Current members
		1994	1999	2003	2007	2011	2015	2019
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	Democratic	9	10	11	9	9	4	12	Template:Infobox political party/seats
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	Independent	9	13	9	8	8	4	9	Template:Infobox political party/seats
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	DAB	0	2	1	4	5	8	3	Template:Infobox political party/seats
style="background-color:Template:Party color"|	NWSC	1	2	4	4	5	5	3	Template:Infobox political party/seats
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	Roundtable	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	Template:Infobox political party/seats
bgcolor=Template:Party color |	TYP	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	Template:Infobox political party/seats

District result maps

• 1994
  1994
• 1999
  1999
• 2003
  2003
• 2007
  2007
• 2011
  2011
• 2015
  2015
• 2019
  2019

Members represented

{{#section-h:7th District Councils of Hong Kong|Kwai Tsing}}

Leadership

Chairs

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

Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	John Ho Tung-ching	1985–1988	Nonpartisan
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Lee Wing-tat	1988–1991	ADPL→United Democrat
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Leung Kwong-cheong	1991–1994	ADPL→Democratic
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Sin Chung-kai	1994–1999	Democratic
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Chow Yick-hay	2000–2007	Democratic
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Tang Kwok-kong	2008–2011	Heung Yee Kuk
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Fong Ping	2011–2015	Independent→BPA
style="color:inherit;background: Template:Party color"|	Law King-shing	2016–2019	DAB
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Sin Chung-kai	2020–2021	Democratic
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Leung Kam-wai	2021–2023	Independent
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Huggin Tang	2024–present	Nonpartisan

Vice Chairs

Vice Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
style="color:inherit;background: Template:Party color"|	Edinson So Hoi-pan	2000–2003	Liberal
style="color:inherit;background: Template:Party color"|	Leung Wing-keun	2004–2007	NWSC
style="color:inherit;background: Template:Party color"|	Alice Mak Mei-kuen	2008–2011	FTU
style="color:inherit;background: Template:Party color"|	Law King-shing	2012–2015	DAB
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Chow Yick-hay	2016–2019	Independent
style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color"|	Cheung Man-lung	2020–2021	Independent