The Tai Po District Council () is the district council for the

Tai Po District Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. The suburban district covers the areas of Tai Po New Town (including areas such as Tai Po Market, , Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Wo Estate), Tai Po Tau, Tai Po Kau, Hong Lok Yue ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It is one of 18 such councils. The Tai Po District Council currently consists of 22 members, of which the district is divided into two constituencies, electing a total of 4 members, 8 district committee members, 8 appointed members, and 2 ex officio members who are the

Tai Po Tai Po is an List of areas of Hong Kong, area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Mark ...

and

Sai Kung North Sai Kung North refers collectively to the areas on the southern side of Tolo Harbour and the northernmost part of the Sai Kung Peninsula. Part of this broad area is served by Sai Sha Road, a motorway between Sai Kung and Ma On Shan. Geogra ...

rural committee Rural committees () are bodies 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 An ''ex officio'' memb ...

chairmen. The latest election was held on 10 December 2023.

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 A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Murray MacLehose Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, ( zh, t=麥理浩; 16 October 1917 – 27 May 2000), was a British politician, diplomat and colonial official who served as the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, from 1971 to 1982. He was the lo ...

's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Board was partly elected with the ''ex-officio'' Regional Council 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 Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a lif ...

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 A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born May 29, 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and retired politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He served as a vice chairman of th ...

. 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 A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

in 2010. The Tai Po District Board was a stronghold of the conservative

Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong The Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (, abbreviated 自民聯; LDF) was a pro-Beijing pro-business and conservative political party in Hong Kong. It was established in 1990, and was composed of mainly conservative businessmen and pr ...

(LDF) and its successor

Hong Kong Progressive Alliance The Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) was a pro-Beijing, pro-business political party in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1994 and was merged into the Democratic Alliance f ...

(HKPA) in the 1990s and early 2000s. The pro-business

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

also established its presence in the district in the 1990s surrounding its chairman

Allen Lee Allen Lee Peng-fei, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Justice of the peace, JP (; 24 April 194015 May 2020) was a Hong Kong industrialist, politician and political commentator. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, serving ...

who was elected through the district in the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. The pro-Beijing

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 camp (Hong Kong), pro-Beijing political party registered since 1992 in Hong Kong. Chaired by Gary Chan and holding 19 Legislative Council of Hong Kong ...

(DAB) and the pro-democracy Democratic Party became the two dominant forces in the district after the handover. For the DAB, its vice-chairman

Cheung Hok-ming Cheung Hok-ming (; born 3 July 1952, in Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, Hong Kong) is a former councillor in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the New Territories West constituency. A Hakka, he is also the chairman of Tai Po District Council an ...

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 Andrew Cheng Kar-foo () (born 28 April 1960 in Hong Kong) was a Hong Kong politician and solicitor. He is a former Democratic Party member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the New Territories East geographical constituency. ...

, until they broke away from the Democrats over the disagreement on the constitutional reform proposal in 2010 and formed the

Neo Democrats The Neo Democrats was a pro-democracy, localist political group in Hong Kong composed mainly of former and disenchanted members of the Democratic Party New Territories East branch after the 2012 constitutional reform proposals. It had held ...

. 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. In the 2023 District Council election, 4 of the 22 seats on the Tai Po District Council are elected by elected members, 8 are elected by district committees, 8 are appointed members, and 2 ex-officio members make up the current Tai Po District Council. In the District Council, 11 of the 22 members are independent members, 6 are from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, 1 from the Federation of Trade Unions, 3 from the BPA, and 1 from the New People Party. 22 of the 22 members are from the pro-establishment camp.

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 whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

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

Leadership

Chairs

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

Vice Chairs

Notes

References

{{Hong Kong topic , suffix=Council, title= District Councils of Hong Kong Districts of Hong Kong Tai Po District