2003 Hong Kong local elections

Hong Kong local elections, 2003

23 November 2003
All Elected Constituencies 400 (of the 529) seats in all 18 Districts Councils
Turnout	44.10% 8.28pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Yeung Sum Tsang Yok-sing Frederick Fung Party Democratic DAB ADPL Alliance Pro-democracy Pro-Beijing Pro-democracy Last election 87 seats, 24.85% 81 seats, 23.53% 19 seats, 4.70% Seats won 95 62 25 Seat change 20 30 5 Popular vote 223,675 241,202 53,264 Percentage 21.27% 22.94% 5.07% Swing 3.57pp 0.59pp 0.36pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   PA Leader Lau Kong-wah James Tien Ambrose Lau Party Civil Force Liberal HKPA Alliance Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Pro-Beijing Last election 11 seats, 2.42% 15 seats, 3.42% 16 seats, 2.65% Seats won 17 14 13 Seat change 6 3 2 Popular vote 25,720 29,108 29,091 Percentage 2.45% 2.77% 2.77% Swing 0.02pp 0.65pp 0.12pp
Map of the winning party by constituency

The 2003 Hong Kong District Council elections were held on 23 November 2003 for all 18 districts of Hong Kong, 400 members from directly elected constituencies out of total 529 council members. It was the second District Council election after the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

The election was historically significant as it was the first election came after the controversies over the legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 and the large-scale July 1 protests in mid-2003 against the unpopular Tung Chee-hwa administration. The election saw the devastating defeat of the pro-government pro-Beijing camp.

The pro-Beijing flagship party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) received the largest defeat in the elections, only 62 of the 206 of its candidates were elected. The party's heavyweights, Yeung Yiu-chung, Lau Kong-wah and Ip Kwok-him all lost their seats to the pro-democracy challengers, with Ip lost his longtime base of Kwun Lung to Cyd Ho of The Frontier. Choy So-yuk also faced challenge from Leung Kwok-hung of April Fifth Action, only retained her seat with narrow margin. DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing resigned for the party's defeat after the election, and subsequently replaced by Ma Lik.

The pro-democracy camp received overall success, with Democratic Party won the most number of 95 seats. The pro-democrats also broke the pro-Beijing dominance in Wan Chai District Council for the first time .

After the election, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa appointed 102 pro-government members to the District Councils to dilute the influence of the pro-democrats and retained control of some of the councils.

Overview

Before the elections were held, media had speculated the effect of the controversy over the legislation of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 to the pro-Beijing camp. With the surge of popularity after the 2003 July 1 protests, the pro-democrats challenged the heavyweights of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the flagship pro-government party in many constituencies, including the party vice-chairman Ip Kwok-him's Kwun Lung, Choy So-yuk's Kam Ping, Yeung Yiu-chung's Mei Foo and Lau Kong-wah's Kam To.

Lau Kong-wah stood in Kam To, challenging Democratic Party's Shirley Ho Suk-ping. As Lau was the Legislative Councillor for New Territories, pro-democrats saw Kam To as a crucial target. Icons like Audrey Eu, Alan Leong and Cheung Man-kwong took turns campaigning for Shirley Ho. Standing in the traditional Hokkien community Kam Ping, Choy so-yuk faced the challenged from Leung Kwok-hung of the April Fifth Action, while The Frontier's Cyd Ho stood in Kwun Lung against Ip Kwok-him. Ho was supported by Article 45 Concern Group's Ronny Tong and Ip was supported by the DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing.

A historical record of 44 percent, in total of 10.6 millions voters cast their vote in the election. In result, Yeung Yiu-chung, Lau Kong-wah and Ip Kwok-him were all defeated by the pro-democrats while Choy So-yuk retained her seat with narrow margin. Only 62 of the 206 DAB candidates were elected. Tsang Yok-sing resigned his chairman post after the defeat and was later on succeeded by Ma Lik.

Results

Results by district

Council	Previous control	Previous party		Camp control	Largest party		class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Democratic Party (Hong Kong)/meta/color; width:35px;"| DP	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong/meta/color; width:35px;"| DAB	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood/meta/color; width:35px;"|ADPL	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Civil Force/meta/color; width:35px;"|CF	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Liberal Party (Hong Kong)/meta/color; width:35px;"| Lib	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Hong Kong Progressive Alliance/meta/color; width:35px;"| PA	class="unsortable" style="background:Template:The Frontier (Hong Kong)/meta/color; width:35px;"| TF/CA	Others	Pro-dem	Pro-Beijing	Appointed & ex officio	Composition	Details
Central & Western	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	6	1			2		2	4	9	6	4		Details
Wan Chai	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	NOC	bgcolor=Template:Civic Act-up/meta/color |	CAU	2	1					3	5	7	4	3		Details
Eastern	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	6	12			1	1		17	12	24	9		Details
Southern	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	2	1			2			12	2	15	4		Details
Yau Tsim Mong	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	4	2	3					7	9	7	4		Details
Sham Shui Po	Pro-democracy style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #faf400;" data-sort-value="HKADPL" |	ADPL	Pro-democracy style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #faf400;" data-sort-value="HKADPL" |	ADPL	2	1	13					5	17	4	5		Details
Kowloon City	Pro-Beijing	bgcolor=Template:Hong Kong Progressive Alliance/meta/color |	PA	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	7	2	3		3	1		6	12	10	5		Details
Wong Tai Sin	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	4	5	2		1		2	11	13	12	6		Details
Kwun Tong	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	9	4			1			20	19	15	8		Details
Tsuen Wan	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	5	1			1	1		9	6	11	5+2		Details
Tuen Mun	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	9	9	4			1		6	13	16	7+1		Details
Yuen Long	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	2	4			1	1		21	7	22	7+6		Details
North	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	8	5						3	10	6	5+4		Details
Tai Po	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	7	3				2	1	6	9	10	5+2		Details
Sai Kung	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	4	4		3		4		5	8	12	5+2		Details
Sha Tin	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #00a754;" data-sort-value="Civil Force" |	Civil Force	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #00a754;" data-sort-value="Civil Force" |	Civil Force	7	2		14	1	1	2	9	14	21	9+1		Details
Kwai Tsing	Pro-democracy style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	Pro-democracy style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #5FB04A;" data-sort-value="DPHK" |	Democratic	11	1			1	1		14	23	5	7+1		Details
Islands	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB	Pro-Beijing style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #1861AC;" data-sort-value="DABHK" |	DAB		4						4	1	7	4+8		Details

Vote summary

Votes, of total, by camp

  Pro-Beijing (46.59%)

  Pro-democrats (45.17%)

  Other (8.24%)

Seats, of total, by camp

  Pro-Beijing (49.25%)

  Pro-democrats (48.25%)

  Other (2.5%)

Popular vote DAB   22.94% Democratic   21.27% ADPL   5.07% Liberal   2.77% PA   2.77% Civil Force   2.45% Frontier   2.41% NWSC   1.35% Others   40.31%

Seat summary

Seats Democratic   23.75% DAB   15.50% ADPL   6.25% Civil Force   4.25% Liberal   3.50% PA   3.25% Frontier   1.75% NWSC   1.00% Others   40.75%

Aftermath

In December 2003 after the elections, Tung appointed 21 political party appointees to the District Councils to dilute the influence of the pro-democrats as follows:

• 8 members of the Liberal Party
• 6 members of the DAB
• 6 members from the Progressive Alliance
• 1 from the New Century Forum

Professor of politics and sociology at Lingnan University, Dr. Li Pang-kwong said "As in the past, most of the appointees were pro-government or persons without a clear political stance... ensur[ing] that no district council is in the hands of the democrats."

A spokesman for the democrats said the appointees "will have an unfair advantage in that they are getting financial support from the government which will help them run for office in future elections."