The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) is a Hong Kong
pro-democracy social-liberal political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
catering to
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...
interest with a strong basis in
Sham Shui Po. Established on 26 October 1986, it was one of the three major pro-democracy groups along with the
Meeting Point and the
Hong Kong Affairs Society in the 1980s.
The ADPL survived through the great unification of the pro-democracy camp in the 1991 and became the only pro-democracy party to sit in the Beijing-controlled
Provisional Legislative Council in 1997. It was ousted for the first time in the
1998 Legislative Council election. Its veteran former chairman
Frederick Fung was the only legislator for the ADPL until he was defeated in the
2016 Legislative Council election in which the party was ousted from the legislature for the second time.
Stances
The stated aims of the ADPL are to:
* Strive for a high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty and to implement the "
one country, two systems" principle;
* Advocate democracy, fight for full implementation of direct elections for the Legislative Council, safeguard basic
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
and freedoms of Hong Kong people and preserve Hong Kong's
judicial independence
Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...
;
* Maintain Hong Kong's prosperity and stability and promote economic development in Hong Kong; and
* Distribute social resources fairly, improving the quality of life of the less well-off.
Within the
pro-democracy camp, the ADPL is usually considered more moderate. Besides demanding
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
, it emphasises livelihood issues and has supported an increase in profits and salaries taxes while opposing sales tax, a stance more favourable to lower income groups. The party has also called for an increase in education and coverage of medical expenses.
History
Founding
The ADPL was founded on 26 October 1986 as a political organisation by a group of incumbent
Urban Councillors,
District Board members, members from mainly four grassroots organisations and professionals, the
Association for Democracy and Justice, the Society for Social Research, the
New Hong Kong Society, the
Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy, the Septentrio Academy and the Sham Shui Po Residents Livelihood Concern Group. The founding chairman was
Ding Lik-kiu and vice-chairmen were
Frederick Fung and
Lee Wing-tat.
Late colonial period
Initially, the ADPL engaged in the
electoral reform debate, advocating direct
election of the legislature in 1988. It supported the liberal proposals put forward by the
Group of 190 coalition. The ADPL was one of the three major pro-democracy groups and performed fairly well in the local and municipal elections the 1980s with its strategic allies the
Meeting Point and the
Hong Kong Affairs Society. At its peak, it had 140 members, 28 District Board members, one Legislative Councillor, 5 municipal councillors.
In 1990, some leading figures of the ADPL such as vice-chairmen Lee Wing-tat and
Albert Chan joined the
United Democrats of Hong Kong, which later became the
Democratic Party. The ADPL retained its separate identity, arguing that it represented grassroots interests whereas the United Democrats were more focused on the middle class. However, as many members joined the new party, the ADPL's membership dropped significantly to only 70 members, 15 District Board members and two municipal councillors.
As the ADPL chairman Frederick Fung was elected to the Legislative Council in the
1991 direct election and other members were elected to municipal councils, the ADPL stabilised and matured from a political organisation to a political party in 1992. It won one seat in the
first direct election of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...
(LegCo) in 1991 when Fung was elected. In the
1995 election, the party won four seats. At the time, due to near-parity of representation between the
pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps in Legco, the stance of the moderate ADPL was influential and often pivotal on controversial issues.
On the issue of the establishment of the
Provisional Legislative Council, the ADPL initially opposed but then agreed to join the interim body. This led to a group of 16 members leaving to form the Social Democratic Front. ADPL became the only pro-democracy party in the legislature immediately after the establishment of the HKSAR, keeping four members in the interim body. ADPL members also served on the
Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the HKSAR.
After 1997
The ADPL lost all its seats in the
1998 Legco election. In the
2000 election, long-time chairman Frederick Fung recovered his directly elected seat in Legco for the ADPL.
At the district level, ADPL traditionally enjoyed a concentration of support in the
Sham Shui Po District, with numerous seats across other District councils in the 1990s but it largely lost its influence outside of Sham Shui Po in the early 2000s. The party's seats mainly concentrated in Sham Shui Po, followed by
Yau Tsim Mong
Yau Tsim Mong District is one of Districts of Hong Kong, 18 districts of Hong Kong, located on the western part of Kowloon Peninsula. It is the core urban area of Kowloon. The district has the second highest population density of all distr ...
and
Kowloon City Districts in Kowloon West, where Frederick Fung retook his Legco seat in, as well as
Wong Tai Sin and Tuen Mun. Following a poor showing in the
2007 District Council elections, Fung resigned as chairman and was replaced by
Bruce Liu.
The ADPL supported the
controversial electoral reform package which created five seats in the
District Council (Second)
The District Council (Second) functional constituency () was a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong which was created in the 2012 constitutional reform package. It was the largest functional constitu ...
functional constituencies which are nominated by District Councillors and elected by all registered voters. In a pan-democrat
primary, Fung stood in the
2012 Chief Executive election but was defeated by the Democratic Party's
Albert Ho. He was subsequently re-elected in the new constituency in the
2012 Legco election.
Tam Kwok-kiu, however, failed to succeed Fung in
Kowloon West, the ADPL's stronghold, its first loss there since 1998.
In the
2015 District Council election, the ADPL won 18 seats while veteran Frederick Fung lost his seat in
Lai Kok to Chan Wing-yan of the
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and
Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions
The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) is a pro-Beijing labour and political group established in 1948 in Hong Kong. It is the oldest and largest labour group in Hong Kong with over 420,000 members in 253 affiliates and associated ...
(FTU). Former party member Eric Wong Chung-ki also contested the constituency. On 23 January 2016,
Rosanda Mok, former vice-chairman of the party, was elected the party's first female chairperson.
Ousted from the LegCo and split
Fung ran in the
New Territories West after losing his eligibility to run in District Council (Second) in the
2016 Legislative Council election, while his party colleague Tam Kwok-kiu ran in Kowloon West for the second time.
Kalvin Ho, a new Sham Shui Po District Councillor represented the ADPL to run in the District Council (Second). Both Fung and Tam lost in the election while Ho withdrew from the campaign to boost other pro-democrat candidates' chance to win. As a result, the ADPL was ousted from the legislature for the second time. Rosanda Mok resigned for the election defeat. In December, the party elected
Sze Tak-loy as its new chairman.
Around the end of 2016, the ADPL's six district councillors, which included all its members from
Yau Tsim Mong District Council and
Kowloon City District Council, quit the party in a disputes concerning the intra-party primary for the
March 2018 Kowloon West by-election, in which Frederick Fung intended to run, leaving the ADPL with only 12 District Councillors. Kalvin Ho, who also intended to run in the primary, later withdrew. As the party resolved to nominate Fung, former chairperson Rosanda Mok also left the party in June 2017. After losing to
Yiu Chung-yim in the primary, Fung announced he would not become the backup candidate if Yiu's candidacy was disqualified amid alleged pressure from the progressive democrats forcing him to withdraw. On 12 July 2018, Fung announced his departure from the ADPL amid speculation that he was going to run for the
November Kowloon West by-election as the party intended to back
Lau Siu-lai.
Post National Security Law
Chairman
Kalvin Ho and vice-chairman
Sze Tak-loy was charged with subversion under the National Security Law in
2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
, resigned respectively later after bail granted by court. Yeung Yuk became the acting chairman of ADPL. On 15 October 2021, amidst a crackdown on pro-Democracy political parties and organizations after the enactment of the
Hong Kong national security law in 2020, the ADPL allowed members to sign up and contest in the
2021 Hong Kong legislative election. While Bruce Liu signaled his interest in running again for the seat, none of the members signed up. The defeat of all moderates and democrats in the election marked by low turnout pressured Yeung, who supported
Frederick Fung in the campaign and angered some pro-democracy activists, to resign as the acting chair of the party, citing his wish to focus on local issues. Bruce Liu was elected as the new chairman on 16 April 2022.
ADPL intended to join the elections by filling two candidates in the
2023 District Council elections after the
election system was overhauled, but neither of the candidates was able to get nominations from the members of the "three committees", many of which came from the pro-Beijing parties. Bruce Liu said that the ADPL has entered the "desert stage", describing the current regional administration as being like Shenzhen's system.
Electoral performance
Chief Executive elections
Legislative Council elections
Note: Each voter got two votes in the 1991 Election.
Municipal elections
District Council elections
Leadership
Chairpersons
*
Ding Lik-kiu, 1986–89
*
Frederick Fung, 1989–2007
**
Bruce Liu, acting 2007–08
*
Bruce Liu, 2008–16
*
Rosanda Mok, 2016
**
Sze Tak-loy, acting 2016
*
Sze Tak-loy, 2016–21
** Yeung Yuk, acting 2021
*
Bruce Liu, 2022–Present
Vice Chairpersons
*
Frederick Fung, 1986–89
*
Lee Wing-tat, 1986–89
*
Law Cheung-kwok, 1989–98
* Leung Kwong-cheong, 1989–96
*
Bruce Liu, 1996–2007
* Yim Tin-sang, 1998–2008
*
Tam Kwok-kiu, 2008–16
*
Rosanda Mok, 2008–13
* Wong Chi-yung, 2013–14
* Pius Yum, 2014–16
*
Sze Tak-loy, 2016
*
Kalvin Ho, 2016–2021
** Howard Lee, acting 2021–22
* Yeung Yuk, 2016–21
* Howard Lee, 2022–Present
Representatives
District Councils
The ADPL won 19 seats in three District Councils (2020–2023) and currently holds six seats:
References
External links
Web site of ADPL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association For Democracy And People's Livelihood
1986 establishments in Hong Kong
Liberal parties in Hong Kong
Member organisations of the Civil Human Rights Front
Political parties established in 1986
Political parties in Hong Kong
Pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong)
Social democratic parties in Hong Kong
Social liberal parties