1994 Hong Kong local elections

Hong Kong local elections, 1994

18 September 1994
All Elected Constituencies 346 (of the 373) seats in all 18 Districts Boards
Turnout	33.1%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Martin Lee Tsang Yok-sing Frederick Fung Party Democratic DAB ADPL Alliance Pan-democracy Pro-Beijing Pan-democracy Last election new new 15 seats, 5.26% Seats won 75 37 29 Seat change 13 28 14 Popular vote 157,929 81,126 47,740 Percentage 23.01% 11.82% 6.95% Swing N/A N/A 1.69%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   LDF CF Leader Allen Lee Hu Fa-kuang Lau Kong-wah Party Liberal LDF Civil Force Alliance Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Leader's seat N/A Last election new 24 seats, 8.96% new Seats won 18 11 10 Seat change 8 2 8 Popular vote 50,755 25,499 12,141 Percentage 7.39% 3.71% 1.77% Swing N/A 5.25% N/A

The 1994 Hong Kong District Board elections were held on 18 September 1994. Election was held to all 18 districts of Hong Kong, for 346 members from directly elected constituencies with the abolition of the appointed seats under the new electoral arrangements, as the last step of the democratisation by the then Governor Chris Patten before the handover of Hong Kong.

Under the Patten's reform package, the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21, appointed members were abolished, and District Board members were given responsibility of filling 10 of the 60 Legislative Council seats through Election Committee constituency in the election next year.

Despite set against the British-Chinese dispute over Hong Kong's political reform, the election was influenced by local issues such as bus fares and garbage collection. The turnout of 33.1%, slightly higher than the 32.5% turnout for the 1991 legislative elections. Almost 700,000 votes cast were 60% more than in the previous election and reflect the broader franchise stemming from Patten's reform package.

The pro-democracy alliance, the United Democrats–Meeting Point, which was undergoing the merger plan of creating the Democratic Party, captured the lead with 75 seats and teamed up with smaller pro-democracy parties to gain control of five of the 18 District Boards.

The biggest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) won 37 seats, doing better than expected, while conservative, pro-business candidates of the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (LDF) and the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance came in below expectations with 30 seats.

After the elections, Beijing appointed 200 District Affairs Advisers as the part of establishing a political structure parallel to that of the British one, as it claimed that Patten's reform violated the constitution and Sino-British agreements.

General outcome

Vote summary

Popular vote Democratic   23.01% DAB   11.87% Liberal   7.39% ADPL   6.95% LDF   3.71% 123DA   2.16% Civil Force   1.77% Others   43.14%

Seat summary

Seats Democratic   21.68% DAB   10.69% ADPL   8.38% Liberal   5.20% LDF   3.18% Civil Force   2.90% 123DA   2.02% Others   45.95%