The North District Council () 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.

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 the Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.

The North District Board became the 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 2008 when long-time councilor So Sai-chi of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) became the council chairman. The DAB achieved a 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) councilors departed from the DAB in 2012.

The pro-democrats had established their presence in the late 1980s with Tik Chi-yuen and Wong Sing-chi of Meeting Point elected in the 1988 and 1991 elections. Both of them became the Legislative Councillors 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 the Democratic Party's Law Sai-yan in Luen Wo Hui. The pro-democrats regained several 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 to be 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 Currentmembers 1994 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019   Independent 5 2 3 3 2 3 8   Democratic 2 7 8 4 1 3 5   DAB 4 6 5 9 14 8 1   FTU - - - - - 3 1

District result maps

Members represented

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

Notes

References