North District Council

The North District Council (Chinese: 北區區議會) is one of the 18 Hong Kong district councils and represents the North District. It is one of 18 such councils. Consisting of 24 members, the district council is drawn from two constituencies, which elect 4 members, along with 8 district committee members, 8 appointed members, and 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 10 December 2023.

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	Derek Lai Chi-kin, Independent
Vice-Chair	Vacant
Structure
Seats	24 councillors consisting of 4 elected members 8 district committee members 8 appointed members 4 ex officio members
DAB	11 / 24
FTU	1 / 24
BPA	1 / 24
FEW	1 / 24
Independent	10 / 24
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	10 December 2023
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.

In the 2023 District Council election, 4 of the 24 seats in the North District Council will be elected by elected members, 8 seats will be elected by the district committees, 8 appointed members, and 4 ex-officio members will make up the current North District District Council. In the Parliament, among the 24 seats, there are 10 independent members, 11 seats from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, 1 seat from the Federation of Trade Unions, 1 seat from the Economic and Democratic Alliance, and 1 seat from the Public Housing Federation. Among the 24 seats, 24 are from the pro-establishment camp.

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 → Pro-Beijing	Democratic	2020 - 2023
Pro-Beijing	DAB	2024 - 2027

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	13 / 22
	Democratic	2	7	8	4	1	3	5	4 / 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

Capacity	Code	Constituency	Name	Term		Political affiliation		Notes
Elected	N01	Wu Tip Shan	Yiu Ming	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Sung Ping-ping	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
	N02	Robin's Nest	Ko Wai-kei	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Ken Tsang King-chung	1 January 2024	Incumbent		FTU
District Committees			Lau Chun-hoi	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Sherwood Ng Yiu-cho	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Ray Hau Hon-shek	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Wu King-pang	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Phillip Tsang Hing-lung	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Pun Hau-man	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Windy Or Sin-yi	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Warwick Wan Wo-tat	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
Appointed			Chu Ho-yin	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Wan Wo-fai	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Lai Sum	1 January 2024	Incumbent		DAB
			Zinnie Chow Tin-yi	1 January 2024	Incumbent		BPA
			Chu Wai-lam	1 January 2024	Incumbent		FEW
			Tommy Hung Chi-fu	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
			Henry Liu Yu-hin	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
			Tam Chun-kwok	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
Ex officio		Ta Kwu Ling Rural Committee Chairman	Chan Yuet-ming	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
		Sheung Shui Rural Committee Chairman	Hau Chi-keung	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
		Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee Chairman	Lee Koon-hung	1 January 2024	Incumbent		Independent
		Fanling Rural Committee Chairman	Li Kwok-fung	1 January 2024	Incumbent		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	2020–2023	Independent
	Derek Lai Chi-kin	2024–present	District Officer

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
	Li Kwok-fung	2016–2019	Heung Yee Kuk
	Chan Yuk-ming	2020–2021	Democratic
	Li Kwok-fung	2021–2023	Heung Yee Kuk