The Wan Chai District Council is the district council for the Wan Chai District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Wan Chai District Council currently consists of 10 members, of which the district is divided into one constituency, electing a total of 2 members, 4 district committee members, and 4 appointed members. The latest election was held on 10 December 2023.
History
The predecessor of 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 GovernorMurray MacLehose's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Board was partly elected with the ex-officioUrban Council members, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any members to the council.
The Wan Chai District Board was replaced by the 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 ExecutiveTung Chee-hwa. The new 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:
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