The Kwai Tsing District Council (; noted as KWT) 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 Pro-democracy ADPL → United Democrats 1988–1991 Pro-democracy United Democrats 1991–1994 Pro-democracy Democratic 1994–1997 Pro-democracy Democratic 1997–1999 Pro-democracy Democratic 2000–2003 Pro-democracy Democratic 2004–2007 Pro-Beijing Democratic 2008–2011 Pro-Beijing Democratic 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 party Council members Currentmembers 1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 Democratic 9 10 11 9 9 4 12 Independent 9 13 9 8 8 4 9 DAB 0 2 1 4 5 8 3 NWSC 1 2 4 4 5 5 3 Roundtable - - - - - - 1 TYP - - - - - - 1
District result maps
Members represented
Leadership Chairs Since 1985, the chairman is elected by all the members of the board: Chairman Years Political Affiliation John Ho Tung-ching 1985–1988 Nonpartisan Lee Wing-tat 1988–1991 ADPL→United Democrat Leung Kwong-cheong 1991–1994 ADPL→Democratic Sin Chung-kai 1994–1999 Democratic Chow Yick-hay 2000–2007 Democratic Tang Kwok-kong 2008–2011 Heung Yee Kuk Fong Ping 2011–2015 Independent→BPA Law King-shing 2016–2019 DAB Sin Chung-kai 2020–2021 Democratic Leung Kam-wai 2021–2023 Independent Huggin Tang 2024–present Nonpartisan
Vice Chairs Vice Chairman Years Political Affiliation Edinson So Hoi-pan 2000–2003 Liberal Leung Wing-keun 2004–2007 NWSC Alice Mak Mei-kuen 2008–2011 FTU Law King-shing 2012–2015 DAB Chow Yick-hay 2016–2019 Independent Cheung Man-lung 2020–2021 Independent
Notes
References