The Wan Chai District Council is the district council for the

Wan Chai District Wan Chai District is one of the districts of Hong Kong, 18 districts of Hong Kong. Of the four on Hong Kong Island, it is north-central, and had 152,608 residents in 2011, a fall from 167,146 residents in 2001. The district has the second-high ...

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 Wan Chai District Council currently consists of 13 members, of which the district is divided into 13 constituencies, electing a total of 13 members. The latest election was held on 24 November 2019.

History

The 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

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''

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

members, 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 Wan Chai District Board became 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 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 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 Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. ...

and

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

constituencies from the

Eastern District Council The Eastern District Council is the district council for the Eastern District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Eastern District Council currently consists of 35 members, of which the district is divided into 35 constituencies, ...

to Wan Chai. The Wan Chai District Council has been controlled by the conservatives with

Peggy Lam Peggy Lam Pei Yu-dja, GBS, OBE (; born 1928) is a Beijing loyalist politician in Hong Kong. She is the chief executive officer of the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong. Family She graduated from the University of Shanghai with a Bachelo ...

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 Civic Act-up () is a small pro-democracy camp, pro-democracy political group in Hong Kong. It was founded on 24 September 2003 by a group of relatively young activists with the encouragement of Legislative Councillor Cyd Ho, to challenge the exist ...

under Legislative Councillor

Cyd Ho Cyd Ho Sau-lan () is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco) for the Hong Kong Island constituency. She is a founding member of the Labour Party, since December 2011, and currently holds the position of vice-chairwoman ...

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 Lee Tung Street (), known as the Wedding Card Street (; ) by locals, was a street in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The street was famed in Hong Kong and abroad as a centre for publishing and for the manufacturing of wedding cards and other similar items ...

. The pro-democracy council lasted for one term until the

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress 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 ...

(DAB) retook its largest party status in the 2007 election while Civic Act-up lost all their seats. 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:

Political makeup

Current Map of Wan Chai District Council

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.

District result maps

File:1994DBelectionmapb.svg, 1994 File:1999DCelectionmapb.svg, 1999 File:2003DCelectionmapb.svg, 2003 File:2007DCelectionmapb.svg, 2007 File:2011DCelectionmapb.svg, 2011 File:Wan Chai District Council 2015.svg, 2015 File:Wan Chai 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

External links

* http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/wc/english/welcome.htm {{coord missing, Hong Kong Districts of Hong Kong Wan Chai District