Southern District Council

Southern District Council (Chinese: 南區區議會) is the district council for the Southern District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 district council. Southern District currently consists of 17 members, of which the district is divided into 17 constituencies, electing a total of 17 members. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

Southern District Council 南區區議會
Type
Type	Hong Kong District Council of the Southern District, Hong Kong
History
Founded	4 December 1981 (1981-12-04) (District Board) 1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional) 1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair	Lo Kin-hei, Democratic
Vice-Chair	Paul Zimmerman, Independent
Structure
Seats	17 councillors consisting of 17 elected members
Democratic	7 / 17
Civic	1 / 17
Liberal	1 / 17
Independent	8 / 17
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	24 November 2019
Meeting place
1/F., Ocean Court, 3 Aberdeen Praya Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/south/

History

The Southern District Council was established on 4 December 1981 under the name of the Southern 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 Southern District Board became Southern 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 Southern 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 Southern District Council has been dominated by the conservative independents. It was once the stronghold of the traditional political group Hong Kong Civic Association in the 1980s, in which they received a great victory in the 1985 election and elected its member Lam Kwok-kwong as the board chairman.[1] The Hong Kong Civic Association allied with the conservative Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (LDF) in the 1991 election, while the liberal United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK) also established its presence in the district concentrated in Wah Fu Estate, led by Huang Chen-ya who was later elected to the Legislative Council in the same year.

The Southern District Council has been controlled by the pro-Beijing camp since 1997, even though the Democratic Party maintained their presence in Wah Fu and some other constituencies. It also bred its young party members Lo Kin-hei and Au Nok-hin who both took the Lei Tung constituencies away from long-held conservative independent councillors in the 2011 election. In the 2019 elections, the pro-democrats achieved the majority in the council in a historic landslide victory brought by the pro-democracy protests. Kelvin Lam Ho-por, a substitute for Joshua Wong who was disqualified from running, defeated Judy Chan Ka-pui of the New People's Party in South Horizons West.

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	Civic Association	1982 - 1985
Pro-government	Civic Association	1985 - 1988
Pro-government	Civic Association	1988 - 1991
Pro-government	Civic Association	1991 - 1994
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	1994 - 1997
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	1997 - 1999
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2000 - 2003
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2004 - 2007
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2008 - 2011
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2012 - 2015
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	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	10	11	10	11	8	9	8	8 / 17
	Democratic	4	2	2	3	5	4	7	7 / 17
	Civic	-	-	-	0	1	0	1	1 / 17
	Liberal	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1 / 17

District result maps

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

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code	Constituency	Name	Political affiliation		Notes
D01	Aberdeen	Angus Wong Yui-hei		Independent
D02	Ap Lei Chau Estate	Lam Yuk-chun		Independent
D03	Ap Lei Chau North	Chan Ping-yeung		Democratic
D04	Lei Tung I	Chan Yan-yi		Democratic
D05	Lei Tung II	Lo Kin-hei		Democratic
D06	South Horizons East	James Yu Chun-hei		Civic
D07	South Horizons West	Kelvin Lam Ho-por		Independent
D08	Wah Kwai	Poon Ping-hong		Democratic
D09	Wah Fu South	Li Shee-lin		Democratic
D10	Wah Fu North	Yim Chun-ho		Democratic
D11	Pokfulam	Paulus Johannes Zimmerman		Independent	[lower-alpha 1]
D12	Chi Fu	Andrew Lam Tak-wo		Independent
D13	Tin Wan	Tiffany Yuen Ka-wai		Independent
D14	Shek Yue	Chan Hin-chung		Independent
D15	Wong Chuk Hang	Tsui Yuen-wa		Democratic
D16	Bays Area	Jonathan Leung Chun		Liberal
D17	Stanley & Shek O	Michael Pang Cheuk-kei		Independent

Leadership

Chairs

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

Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	Kwong Ki-chi	1981–1984	District Officer
	Eddy Chan Yuk-tak	1984–1985	District Officer
	Lam Kwok-kwong	1985–1988	Civic Association
	Hui Yung-chung	1988–1994	Independent
	Ko Tam-kan	1994–1997	Independent
	Ma Yuet-har	1997–1999	Independent
	Joseph Chan Yuek-sut	2000–2003	Independent
	Ma Yuet-har	2004–2011	Independent
	Chu Ching-hong	2012–2019	Independent
	Lo Kin-hei	2020–present	Democratic

Vice Chairs

Vice Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	Wong King-keung	2000–2003	Independent
	Chu Ching-hong	2004–2011	Independent
	Chan Fu-ming	2012–2019	Independent
	Paulus Johannes Zimmerman	2020–present	Independent

Notes

1. Former Civic Party member.

References

1. 百姓, Issues 111-122. 百姓半月刊編輯委員會. 1986. p. 55.