The Tai Po District Council () is the

district council District council may refer to: *A branch of local government in the United Kingdom: **Supervising one of the Districts of England: ***A Metropolitan borough ***A Non-metropolitan district ***A Unitary authority **Supervising one of the Principal ...

for the Tai Po District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Tai Po District Council currently consists of 21 members, of which the district is divided into 19 constituencies, electing a total of 19 with 2 ex officio members who are the Tai Po and Sai Kung North rural committee chairmen. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

History

The Tai Po District Council was established on 1 April 1981 under the name of the Tai Po District Board as the result of the colonial Governor

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 Regional Council may refer to: * Regional Council (Hong Kong), disbanded in 1999 ** Regional Council (constituency) Regional council may refer to: * Regional council (Cameroon) * Regional council (France), the elected assembly of a region of Fra ...

members and chairmen of two Rural Committees, Tai Po and Sai Kung North, 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 Tai Po District Board became Tai Po 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 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 Tai Po 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 Tai Po District Board was a stronghold of the conservative Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (LDF) and its successor Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) in the 1990s and early 2000s. The pro-business Liberal Party also established its presence in the district in the 1990s surrounding its chairman Allen Lee who was elected through the district in the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. The pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the pro-democracy

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 ...

became the two dominant forces in the district after the handover. For the DAB, its vice-chairman Cheung Hok-ming who is also the chairman of the Tai Po Rural Committee has been the chairman of the council from 1994 to 2003 and again from 2008. For the Democratic Party, it was the base of the reformist "Young Turks" faction in the party represented by Legislative Councillor Andrew Cheng, until they broke away from the Democrats over the disagreement on the constitutional reform proposal in 2010 and formed the Neo Democrats. In the 2019 election, the pro-democrats formed a coalition called

Tai Po Democratic Alliance Tai Po Democratic Alliance () is a loose political alliance consisting of the 17 candidates in the 2019 District Council election for the Tai Po District Council. With the pro-democracy camp winning all the elected seats in the election, the a ...

(TPDA) running in 17 constituencies against the pro-Beijing candidates. The pro-democrats achieved a historic landslide victory by sweeping all the elected seats in the council amid the massive pro-democracy protests. The pro-Beijing camp was completely wiped out except for the two ''ex-officio'' members who were also the Rural Committee chairmen.

Political control

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

Political makeup

Elections are held every four years.

District result maps

File:1994DBelectionmapp.svg, 1994 File:1999DCelectionmapp.svg, 1999 File:2003DCelectionmapp.svg, 2003 File:2007DCelectionmapp.svg, 2007 File:2011DCelectionmapp.svg, 2011 File:Tai Po District Council 2015.svg, 2015 File:Tai Po 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

{{Hong Kong Tai Po Council Constituencies Districts of Hong Kong Tai Po District