The Sha Tin District Council is the district council for the

Sha Tin District Sha Tin District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. As one of the 9 districts located in the New Territories, it covers the areas of Sha Tin, Tai Wai, Ma On Shan, Fo Tan, Siu Lek Yuen, and Ma Liu Shui. The district is the most populo ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It is one of 18 such councils. The Sha Tin District Council currently consists of 42 members, of which the district is divided into 41 constituencies, electing a total of 41 with 1 ''ex officio'' member who is the

Sha Tin Sha Tin, also spelt Shatin, is a neighbourhood along Shing Mun River in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District. Sha Tin is one of the neighbourhoods of the Sha Tin New Town project. The ne ...

rural committee Rural committee () is a body representing the welfare of indigenous residents in the New Territories of Hong Kong. The chairman of each rural committee is the representative in the Heung Yee Kuk, and is ''ex officio'' member of a district coun ...

chairman. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

History

The Sha Tin District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the Sha Tin District Board as the result of the colonial

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Murray MacLehose Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, (; 16 October 1917 – 27 May 2000), was a British politician, diplomat and the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, from 1971 to 1982. He was the longest-serving governor of the colony, with four ...

's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Board was partly elected with the ''ex-officio'' Regional Council members and Sha Tin Rural Committee chairman, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

refrained from appointing any member. The Sha Tin District Board became Sha Tin Provisional District Board after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was established in 1997 with the appointment system being reintroduced by

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chin ...

. The current Sha Tin 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. As a

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

in the 1980s, Sha Tin was a strategic target for emerging pro-democracy activists, when the three major pro-democracy political groups

Hong Kong Affairs Society The Hong Kong Affairs Society () was a middle class and professionals oriented political organisation formed in 1984 for the discussion for the Hong Kong prospect and political constitution after the handover to China with about 20 members led ...

(HKAS),

Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) is a Hong Kong pro-democracy social-liberal political party catering to grassroots interest with a strong basis in Sham Shui Po. Established on 26 October 1986, it was one o ...

(ADPL) and

Meeting Point Meeting Point (Chinese: 匯點) was a liberal political organisation and party in Hong Kong formed by a group of former student activists in the 1970s and intellectuals for the discussion for the Sino-British negotiation on the question of Hong ...

formed a strategic alliance in the 1988 District Board election, which saw prominent politicians

Fung Chi-wood Fung Chi-wood (, 23 August 1956) was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Regional Council, Shatin District Board Member, and a priest of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. He was famous for leading the movement against the Daya B ...

Lau Kong-wah Lau or LAU may refer to: People * Lau (surname) * Liu (劉/刘), a common Chinese family name transliterated Lau in Cantonese and Hokkien * Lau clan, one of the Saraswat Brahmin clans of Punjab * LAU (musician): Laura Fares Places * Lebanese ...

and

Choy Kan-pui Choy Kan-pui, BBS, JP (born 1929) is a former Hong Kong legislator and Sha Tin villager. He ran in the 1982 Hong Kong district boards election representing the Tin Sum village in Sha Tin where he rooted and continued his office until 2003. He wa ...

launched their political careers. Lau and Choy later quit the pro-democracy

United Democrats of Hong Kong The United Democrats of Hong Kong (; UDHK) was a short-lived political party in Hong Kong founded in 1990 as the united front of the liberal democracy forces in preparation of the 1991 first ever direct election for the Legislative Council of ...

(UDHK) after the 1991 Legislative Council direct election and formed a new district-based political group

Civil Force Civil Force () is a district-based pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong. Since 2014, the Civil Force has entered an alliance with the New People's Party of Regina Ip. Headed by chairman Pun Kwok-shan, it had its stronghold in the Sha Tin and ...

in which all its candidates were elected in the 1994 election and have been dominating the council since. The 2000s saw the intense competitions between the

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party in the l ...

(DAB) and the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, which saw the DAB dropped its seat from 1999 election's nine to 2003 election's two due to the anti-government sentiments following the historic

2003 July 1 protest The Hong Kong 1 July protests was an annual protest rally originally held by the Civil Human Rights Front from the day of handover in 1997 on the HKSAR establishment day. However, it was not until 2003 that the march drew large public attentio ...

, many of those in

Ma On Shan Ma On Shan may refer to: * Ma On Shan (peak) ( zh, t=馬鞍山, s=马鞍山, l=saddle peak, links=no), a mountain in the New Territories of Hong Kong * Ma On Shan (town), a New Town in the New Territories on the foot of Ma On Shan mountain * Ma On ...

fallen into the Democrats' hand with the defeats of Lau Kong-wah and

Chan Hak-kan Gary Chan Hak-kan, BBS, JP (born 24 April 1976) is a current member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. He represents the New Territories North East constituency and is a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progres ...

in Kam To and Chung On. The DAB rebounded from its defeat in the 2007 election, retaking most of its seats from the Democrats. In 2014,

Regina Ip Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee (; ' Lau; born 24 August 1950) is a Chinese politician. She is currently the Convenor of the Executive Council (ExCo) and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), as well as the founder and current chair ...

's New People's Party (NPP) expanded its network to Sha Tin by absorbing the Civil Force, making NPP the largest party in the district. In the 2015 District Council election, the first election after the

Umbrella Revolution A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

, the pan-democrats made a surprising advance in the district, doubling their seats from 8 to 19 seats by defeating a number of veteran Civil Force councillors. The DAB also suffered some unexpected defeats in Ma On Shan, with incumbent Legislative Councillor

Elizabeth Quat Elizabeth Quat Pei-fan, BBS, JP (, born 23 December 1966) is a Hong Kong politician associated with the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. She is a co-founder of the Internet Professional Association ...

lost her seat to Labour Party new face Yip Wing in Chung On. However, The pro-Beijing camp was able to retain control of the council with a one-seat majority of the ''ex-officio'' seat occupied by the Sha Tin Rural Committee chairman. In the historic landslide victory in 2019, the pro-democrats took control of the council by sweeping 40 of the 41 elected seats. Only the new constituency Di Yee was won by pro-Beijing DAB as two pro-democrat candidates split the votes which gave the DAB the victory.

Political control

Since 1982 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Political makeup

Elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

are held every four years. As of October 19, 2020:

District result maps

File:1994DBelectionmapr.svg, 1994 File:1999DCelectionmapr.svg, 1999 File:2003DCelectionmapr.svg, 2003 File:2007DCelectionmapr.svg, 2007 File:2011DCelectionmapr.svg, 2011 File:Sha Tin District Council 2015.svg, 2015 File:Sha Tin District Council (2019).svg, 2019

Members represented

Starting from 1 January 2020:

Leadership

Chairs

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

Vice Chairs

Notes

References

{{coord, 22.385650, 114.186977, display=title Districts of Hong Kong Sha Tin District