Yuen Long District Council

Yuen Long District Council 元朗區議會
Type
Type	Hong Kong District Council of the Yuen Long District
History
Founded	1 April 1981; 40 years ago (1981-04-01) (District Board) 1 July 1997; 24 years ago (1997-07-01) (Provisional) 1 January 2000; 21 years ago (2000-01-01) (District Council)
Leadership
Chair	Shum Ho-kit, Independent
Vice-Chair	Tang Ho-lin, Independent
Structure
Seats	45 councillors consisting of 39 elected and 6 ex officio members
Independent	13 / 45
Vacant	32 / 45
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	24 November 2019
Meeting place
13/F., Yuen Long Government Offices, No.2, Kiu Lok Square, Yuen Long, New Territories
Website
www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/yl/

The Yuen Long District Council (Chinese: 元朗區議會) is the district council for the Yuen Long District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Yuen Long District currently consists of 45 members, of which the district is divided into 39 constituencies, electing a total of 39 with 6 ex officio members who are the Shap Pat Heung, San Tin, Ha Tsuen, Kam Tin, Ping Shan and Pat Heung rural committee chairmen. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

History[]

The Yuen Long District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the Yuen Long 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 six Rural Committees, Shap Pat Heung, San Tin, Ha Tsuen, Kam Tin, Ping Shan and Pat Heung, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The Yuen Long District Board became Yuen Long 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 Yuen Long 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 Yuen Long District Council is one of the fastest growing council due to the development of the new towns of Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai, and has become the largest council of the territory. It had been tightly dominated by the rural forces due to its vast rural areas and the ex-officio rural committee representatives. The chairmanship of the council had been taken by rural or rural-related councillors, such as Tai Kuen, chairman from 1985 to 1999, was a rural strongman; Tang Siu-tong, chairman from 2000 to 2007, was a rural leader which represented the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance and was elected to the Legislative Council in 2000 on the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) ticket; Leung Che-cheung, chairman from 2008 to 2015, was a member of the DAB and president of the New Territories Association of Societies (NTAS) who has been Legislative Councillor since 2012.

The Tin Shui Wai new town was also dominated by the pro-Beijing forces. The pro-democrats have limited influence in the district, such as Zachary Wong and Kwong Chun-yu in Long Ping Estate and the pro-Taipei Democratic Alliance's Johnny Mak in Fung Cheung. On the capacity of Yuen Long District Councillor, Kwong was elected to the Legislative Council through the District Council (Second) constituency in 2016.

The pro-Beijing and rural domination was turned over in the 2019 historic landslide victory where the pro-democrats took over all the urban constituencies and a few rural constituencies amid the massive pro-democracy protests. All pro-Beijing councillors in Tin Shui Wai including Luk Chung-hung of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) being unseated and some rural incumbents were also surprisingly defeated. As a result, the pro-democrats took 33 of the 39 elected seats and seized control of the 45-member council 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	Reform Club	1985 - 1988
Pro-government	Meeting Point	1988 - 1991
Pro-government	United Democrats	1991 - 1994
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	1994 - 1997
Pro-Beijing	Democratic	1997 - 1999
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2000 - 2003
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2004 - 2007
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2008 - 2011
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2012 - 2015
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2016 - 2019
Pro-democracy → Pro-Beijing	Democratic → None	2020 - 2023

Political makeup[]

Elections are held every four years.

	Political party	Council members							Current members
			1999	2003	2007	2011	2015	2019
	Independent	15	14	17	15	14	17	20	25 / 45
	Democratic	3	1	2	2	3	2	7	7 / 45
	TSWC	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	3 / 45
	Action 18	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	2 / 45
	DA	-	-	4	1	-	1	2	2 / 45
	Civic Passion	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1 / 45
		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 / 45

District result maps[]

• 

  1994

• 

  1999

• 

  2003

• 

  2007

• 

  2011

• 

  2015

• 

  2019

Members represented[]

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Code	Constituency	Name	Political affiliation		Notes
M01	Fung Nin	Vacant
M02	Yuen Long Centre	Vacant
M03	Fung Cheung	Vacant			[a]
M04	Yuen Lung	Vacant			[b]
M05	Shap Pat Heung Central	Vacant
M06	Shui Pin	Vacant			[c][d]
M07	Nam Ping	Vacant			[d]
M08	Pek Long	Vacant			[e]
M09	Yuen Long Tung Tau	Vacant			[a]
M10	Shap Pat Heung North	Shum Ho-kit		Independent
M11	Shap Pat Heung East	Vacant
M12	Shap Pat Heung West	Vacant			[f]
M13	Ping Shan South	Vacant			[c]
M14	Hung Fuk	Vacant			[c]
M15	Ha Tsuen	Tang Ka-leung		Independent
M16	Ping Shan Central	Vacant			[d]
M17	Shing Yan	Vacant			[c]
M18	Tin Shing	Vacant
M19	Tin Yiu	Vacant
M20	Yiu Yau	Vacant			[d]
M21	Tsz Yau	Vacant
M22	Kingswood South	Vacant
M23	Shui Oi	Vacant			[d]
M24	Shui Wah	Vacant
M25	Chung Wah	Vacant			[d]
M26	Chung Pak	Vacant			[d]
M27	Kingswood North	Vacant			[g]
M28	Yuet Yan	Vacant
M29	Ching King	Vacant
M30	Fu Yan	Vacant
M31	Yat Chak	Vacant
M32	Tin Heng	Vacant			[h]
M33	Wang Yat	Mo Kai-hong		Independent	[a]
M34	Ping Shan North	Young Ka-on		Independent
M35	Fairview Park	Vacant			[i]
M36	San Tin	Man Fu-wan		Independent
M37	Kam Tin	Vacant
M38	Pat Heung North	Ronnie Tang Yung-yiu		Independent
M39	Pat Heung South	Lai Wing-tim		Independent
Ex officio	Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee Chairman	Ching Chan-ming		Independent
	San Tin Rural Committee Chairman	Jimmy Man Mei-kwai		Independent
	Ha Tsuen Rural Committee Chairman	Tang Lai-tung		Independent
	Kam Tin Rural Committee Chairman	Tang Ho-lin		Independent
	Ping Shan Rural Committee Chairman	Tang Che-keung		Independent
	Pat Heung Rural Committee Chairman	Tang Shui-man		Independent

Leadership[]

Chairs[]

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

Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	Fung Kwok-keung	1981–1982	District Officer
	J. K. Wilson	1982–1985	District Officer
	Tai Kuen	1985–1999	Heung Yee Kuk
	Tang Siu-tong	2000–2007	PA→DAB
	Leung Che-cheung	2008–2015	DAB/NTAS
	Shum Ho-kit	2016–2019	Heung Yee Kuk
	Zachary Wong Wai-ying	2020–2021	Democratic
	Shum Ho-kit	2021–present	Independent

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Vice Chairs[]

Vice Chairman		Years	Political Affiliation
	Leung Che-cheung	2000–2008	DAB
	Tang Yun-chor	2008–2011	Heung Yee Kuk
	Leung Fuk-yuen	2011	Heung Yee Kuk
	Wong Wai-shun	2012–2019	NPP→BPA
	Johnny Mak Ip-sing	2020–2021	Democratic Alliance
	Tang Ho-lin	2021–present	Independent

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Yuen Long District Council