Sai Kung District Council about to disappear – now down to just eight members

^{Sai Kung District Council when it existed}

Up until 15 March 2021 Sai Kung District Council had 31 members, 29 directly elected by the voters of the district, two appointed from the Rural Committees. As of 7 October that number is now down to eight. After the November 2019 elections the pan-democrat parties had all but five of the seats; now they have none! And the government has just announced plans to abolish the DCs anyway!

Three of the current councillors are associated with Christine Fong’s moderate faction, and the two appointees continue. The question many residents are asking is “How did my vote get invalidated”. Well, blame the national Security Law brought in under Beijing’s direction on 1 July 2020.

Many voters took great pleasure in the fact that the DAB was wiped out in the 2019 elections, ending the 25 year reign of “King” George Ng Sze-fuk. It also spelled the demise of one-party rule, which the majority of voters thought had allowed nepotism and corruption to flourish and that the DC had not ben acting in the best interests of its residents.

^{Christine Fong is now leader of the largest grouping on the Sai Kung District Council with just three members}

In those elections 392 pan-dems were elected compared to just 60 pro-government candidates. Pan-dems took control of 17 of the 18 District Councils. This also gave them the option to choose 117 of the 1200 members of the Election Committee for the Chief Executive, which along with the votes of pan-dems in the Functional Constituencies would give them over 500 votes in total, meaning that they would be the largest bloc on the Committee.

After the NSL was promulgated, effectively by decree and with no local consultation, the screws began to tighten on anyone associated with the 2014 Occupy Central campaign, the annual candlelit event in Victoria Park, the 1 July rally from Causeway Bay to Central, the so-called “primary elections” held to select pan-dem candidates for the planned Legco elections in 2020, and those elected in one-person-one vote elections.

Many Legco and DC members were rounded up and imprisoned. Many others left Hong Kong all together. Those who stayed were all required to take an oath of loyalty to Hong Kong, and by extension the government in China and the CCP. Many refused to do so and resigned. Others did, but were disqualified by the government which claimed they were not being truthful or patriotic enough. Many more resigned owing to unfounded rumours from with government circles that any disqualified councillor would have to pay back any allowances and expenses that had been incurred since the election, amounting to more than HK$1 million in most cases. In fact, out of the original 392 councillors elected in 2019 from the pan-dem camp just 63 remain.

And so here we are…….just six elected councillors now running our District Council. Clearly it is unviable. But don’t worry as the government has just announced it’s going to abolish them anyway in the next few years. Not to fear – its place is being taken by various advisory groups that the government has set up or reinstituted. And who has been appointed to these newly activated committees? Well don’t be surprised – it’s all the people that got booted out in 2019………And as a bonus they got all the 100+ votes on the Election Committee for the Chief Executive that used to belong to the elected DCs……courtesy of our new “improved” election system.

Still, Hong Kong residents do have some say in how the place is run. We can at least vote for one of 20 of the members in the new 90 person Legco. But of course there’s a catch. All candidates must be approved by the CCP first…..so don’t expect any of the DQ’d, imprisoned or resigned councillors to have a chance………