Wan Chai District Council

Wan Chai District Council (Chinese: 灣仔區議會) is the district council for the Wan Chai District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 district councils. Wan Chai District currently consists of 13 members, of which the district is divided into 13 constituencies, electing a total of 13 members. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

Wan Chai District Council

灣仔區議會
Type
Type
Hong Kong District Council
of the Wan Chai District
History
Founded20 February 1982 (1982-02-20) (District Board)
1 July 1997 (1997-07-01) (Provisional)
1 January 2000 (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair
Clarisse Yeung, Independent
Vice-Chair
Mak King-sing, Independent
Structure
Seats13 councillors
consisting of
13 elected members
1 / 13
Independent
12 / 13
Elections
First past the post
Last election
24 November 2019
Meeting place
21/F, Southorn Centre, 130 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/wc/

History

The Wan Chai District Council was established on 20 February 1982 under the name of the Wan Chai 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 Wan Chai District Board became Wan Chai 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 Wan Chai 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 Wan Chai District Council is the smallest District Council, having only 13 members due to its small population. Due to its continuing shrinking in size, the government in 2015 decided to transfer Tin Hau and Victoria Park constituencies from the Eastern District Council to Wan Chai.[1]

The Wan Chai District Council has been controlled by the conservatives with Peggy Lam being the chairwoman of the council from 1985 to 2003. The conservative control was interrupted between 2003 and 2007, when the pro-democrats and their allies took advance of the anti-government sentiment of the 2003 July 1 march in which the newly established Civic Act-up under Legislative Councillor Cyd Ho became the largest party in the council in the 2003 election and make nonpartisan Ada Wong Ying-kay the council chairwoman. The pro-democracy council was noted for its community reforms, stressing the citizens' involvement in the community planning, such as the urban renewal projects including the controversy over the demolition of Lee Tung Street. The pro-democracy council lasted for one term until the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) retook its largest party status in the 2007 election while Civic Act-up lost all their seats.[2]

The 2019–20 pro-democracy protests brought a historic landslide victory to the pro-democrats in the November election with members of the local political group Kickstart Wan Chai who all ran as independents won numbers of seats, ousting long-time pro-Beijing incumbents and took control of the council for the first time since 2003 election.

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-governmentCivic Association1988 - 1991




Pro-governmentUnited Democrats1991 - 1994



Pro-BeijingDAB1994 - 1997




Pro-BeijingDAB1997 - 1999




Pro-BeijingDAB2000 - 2003




NOC → Pro-democracyCivic Act-up2004 - 2007




Pro-BeijingDAB2008 - 2011




Pro-BeijingDAB2012 - 2015




Pro-BeijingDAB2016 - 2019




Pro-democracyLiberal2020 - 2023




Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

    Political party Council members Current
members
1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019
  Independent 2 4 4 8 7 7 11
12 / 13
  Liberal 1 1 - 0 0 1 1
1 / 13

District result maps
  • 1994
  • 1999
  • 2003
  • 2007
  • 2011
  • 2015
  • 2019

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code Constituency Name Political affiliation Notes
B01 Hennessy Sabina Koo Kwok-wai Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B02 Oi Kwan Law Wai-shan Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B03 Canal Road Mak King-sing Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B04 Causeway Bay Cathy Yau Man-shan Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B05 Victoria Park Li Wing-choi Independent
B06 Tin Hau Chan Yuk-lam Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B07 Tai Hang Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying Independent [lower-alpha 1]
B08 Jardine's Lookout Wind Lam Wai-man Liberal
B09 Broadwood Paul Tse Wai-chun Independent
B10 Happy Valley Clara Cheung Independent
B11 Stubbs Road Ivan Wong Wang-tai Independent
B12 Southorn Lee Pik-yee Independent
B13 Tai Fat Hau Leung Pak-kin Independent

Leadership

Chairs

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

ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
A. G. Cooper1982–1983District Officer
Lolly Chiu Yuen-chu1983–1984District Officer
Lam Kam-kwong1984–1985District Officer
Peggy Lam Pei[3]1985–2003Nonpartisan→Liberal→Independent
Ada Wong Ying-kay2004–2007Independent→Civic Act-up
Suen Kai-cheong[4]2008–2015DAB
Stephen Ng Kam-chun2016–2019Independent
Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying2020–presentIndependent

Vice Chairs
Vice ChairmanYearsPolitical Affiliation
Suen Kai-cheong2000–2003DAB
John Tse Wing-ling2004–2007Democratic→Independent
Stephen Ng Kam-chun2008–2015Independent
Jennifer Chow Kit-bing2016–2019DAB
Mak King-sing2020–presentIndependent

Notes
  1. Kickstart Wan Chai member.

References
  1. "Public Consultation on Demarcation of District boundary between Eastern and Wan Chai Districts". Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau.
  2. "【真假區議會 2】真議會是怎樣誕生的？　2004年灣仔實驗". 立場新聞. 27 July 2015.
  3. "Wan Chai Green Trail" (PDF). Wan Chai District Board and Conservancy Association. 1994. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "Wan Chai District Council Members (2008 - 2011)". Wan Chai District Council. Retrieved 14 March 2013.

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