North District Council

North District Council (Chinese: 北區區議會) is one of the 18 Hong Kong district councils and represents the North District. Consisting of 22 members, the district council is drawn from 18 constituencies, which elect 18 members, along with four ex officio members who are the Ta Kwu Ling, Sheung Shui, Sha Tau Kok and Fanling rural committee chairmen. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

North District Council 北區區議會
Type
Type	Hong Kong District Council of the North District, Hong Kong
History
Founded	1 April 1981 (1981-04-01) (District Board) 1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional) 1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair	Law Ting-tak, Independent
Vice-Chair	Chan Yuk-ming, Democratic
Structure
Seats	22 councillors consisting of 18 elected and 4 ex officio members
Democratic	5 / 22
Neo Dem	3 / 22
DAB	1 / 22
FTU	1 / 22
Independent	12 / 22
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	24 November 2019
Meeting place
3/F, North District Government Offices, 3 Pik Fung Road, Fanling, New Territories
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/north/

History

The North District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the North 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 Regional Council members and chairmen of four Rural Committees, Ta Kwu Ling, Sheung Shui, Sha Tau Kok and Fanling, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The North District Board became North 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 North District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first District Council election in 1999. The appointed seats were abolished in 2015 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.

The North District Council is dominated by the rural forces and the pro-Beijing camp. The rural forces had been in control of the chairmanship until in 2008, when long-time councillor So Sai-chi of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) became the council chairman. The DAB achieved majority of the seats in the 2011 District Council election, taking 14 of the 17 elected seats of the council. The DAB majority ended when the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) councillors departed from the DAB in 2012.

The pro-democrats had established its presence in the late 1980s with Tik Chi-yuen and Wong Sing-chi of Meeting Point elected in the 1988 and 1991 election. Both of them became the Legislative Councillor for the Democratic Party. The pro-democrats achieved the majority of the elected seats in the 2003 tide of democracy following the 2003 July 1 march, but suffered setbacks in the 2007 and 2011 elections. In the 2011 election, the pro-democrats won only one seat, occupied by Democratic Party's Law Sai-yan in Luen Wo Hui. The pro-democrats regained a number of seats in 2015, with Democratic Party chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting won in Shek Wu Hui and was elected to the Legislative Council in the next year.

In the 2019 election, the pro-democrats took control of the council by taking 15 seats in a historic landslide victory amid the massive pro-democracy protests. The pro-Beijing parties almost lost all their seats, retaining only three seats with DAB's Lau Kwok-fan, the legislator for the District Council (First) functional constituency also being unseated. As a result, the newly elected Law Ting-tak became the first localist being elected as council chairman for the first time.

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	None	1982 - 1985
Pro-government	None	1985 - 1988
Pro-government	Meeting Point	1988 - 1991
Pro-government	Meeting Point	1991 - 1994
Pro-Beijing	DAB	1994 - 1997
Pro-Beijing	DAB	1997 - 1999
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2000 - 2003
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2004 - 2007
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2008 - 2011
Pro-Beijing	DAB (majority)	2012 - 2015
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2016 - 2019
Pro-democracy	Democratic	2020 - 2023

Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

	Political party	Council members							Current members
		1994	1999	2003	2007	2011	2015	2019
	Independent	5	2	3	3	2	3	8	12 / 22
	Democratic	2	7	8	4	1	3	5	5 / 22
	Neo Dem	-	-	-	-	-	1	3	3 / 22
	DAB	4	6	5	9	14	8	1	1 / 22
	FTU	-	-	-	-	-	3	1	1 / 22

District result maps

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

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code	Constituency	Name	Political affiliation		Notes
N01	Luen Wo Hui	Chow Kam-ho		Independent	[lower-alpha 1]
N02	Fanling Town	Wong Hoi-ying		Democratic
N03	Cheung Wah	Chan Yuk-ming		Democratic
N04	Wah Do	Cheung Chun-wai		Independent	[lower-alpha 2]
N05	Wah Ming	Chan Wai-tat		Neo Democrats
N06	Yan Shing	Lam Shuk-ching		Neo Democrats
N07	Fanling South	Franco Cheung Ching-ho		Independent
N08	Shing Fuk	Warick Wan Wo-tat		FTU
N09	Ching Ho	Larm Wai-leung		Independent
N10	Yu Tai	Vincent Chan Chi-fung		Independent
N11	Sheung Shui Rural	Simon Hau Fuk-tat		Independent
N12	Choi Yuen	Lam Tsz-king		Democratic
N13	Shek Wu Hui	Lam Cheuk-ting		Democratic
N14	Tin Ping West	Kwok Long-fung		Democratic
N15	Fung Tsui	Chiang Man-ching		Independent
N16	Sha Ta	Ko Wai-kei		DAB/NTAS
N17	Tin Ping East	Lau Ki-fung		Neo Democrats
N18	Queen's Hill	Law Ting-tak		Independent
Ex officio	Ta Kwu Ling Rural Committee Chairman	Chan Yuet-ming		Independent
	Sheung Shui Rural Committee Chairman	Hau Chi-keung		Independent
	Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee Chairman	Lau Tin-sang		Independent
	Fanling Rural Committee Chairman	Lee Kwok-fung		Independent

Leadership

Chairs

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

Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	P.E. Johnson	1981–1982	District Officer
	S. Harbinson	1982–1984	District Officer
	I. Wotherspoon	1984–1985	District Officer
	Raymond Pang Hang-yin	1985–1994	Heung Yee Kuk→LDF
	Tang Kwok-yung	1994–1999	Heung Yee Kuk
	Raymond Pang Hang-yin	1999–2003	Heung Yee Kuk
	Li Kwok-fung	2004–2006	Heung Yee Kuk
	Lau Tin-sang	2006–2007	Heung Yee Kuk
	So Sai-chi	2008–2019	DAB
	Law Ting-tak	2020–present	Independent

Vice Chairs

Vice Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	Cheung Fo-tai	2000–2003	Heung Yee Kuk
	Chow Kam-siu	2004–2007	Democratic
	Hau Chi-keung	2008–2011	Liberal/Heung Yee Kuk
	Hau Kam-lam	2012–2015	DAB/Heung Yee Kuk
	Lee Kwok-fung	2016–2019	Heung Yee Kuk
	Chan Yuk-ming	2020–present	Democratic

Notes

1. Luen Wo United member.
2. North District Blueprint member.

References