The pan-democrats have won 112 seats, eight of which went to “umbrella soldiers”, while the pro-establishment camp has taken 298 in the District Council elections on Sunday. Candidates who were independent of political groups and parties won 13 seats.
The pan-democrats performed the best in the Sha Tin district, where the traditional pro-democracy parties won 17 seats, the “umbrella soldiers” took two, and the pro-Beijing parties swept up the rest. This means that the pan-democrats have won 50% of the seats in the district, Apple Daily reported. However, because there is one ex officio seat reserved for the rural committee in Sha Tin, the pan-democrats are still one seat short of having a majority on the Council.
“Umbrella soldiers” refers to young candidates representing parties who emerged from the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests.
There was a close call in Sham Shui Po, where the pan-democrats won 11 seats and the pro-Beijing parties won 12. In the Lai Kok constituency, Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (ADPL) lost by 99 votes to Chan Wing-yan of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. Eric Wong Chung-ki, who was formerly an ADPL member and ran independently this election, only took 215 votes.
Many regarded Wong to have taken the votes from Fung, as he divided the support of the pan-democrat voters by running against Fung. As Wong was leaving the polling station, voters shouted at him saying “You’re a bad person, you’ve ruined everything,” Stand News reported. Fung had previously been a District Councillor for 12 years.
In the Kwai Tsing District, where the pro-democracy parties had high hopes, pro-Beijing parties won 19 out of 29 of the seats, while the Democratic Party lost four of their seats. Five gave the pro-Beijing district councillors a run for their seats but were unsuccessful. Andrew Wan Siu-kin, Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party, lost his seat in the Shek Yam constituency to The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB)’s Li Sai-lung by a mere 54 votes. Lam lap-chi, Sammy Tsui Sang-hung and Leung Kwok-wah of the Democratic Party all lost their seats to pro-Beijing candidates.
The closest call was in the Wah Fu South constituency, where the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Island Federation’s Au Lap-sing won Democratic Party’s Li Shee-lin by just three votes.
The influence of the pro-Beijing parties was is most prominent in the Wan Chai District, in which they won 84.6% of the seats.
The total number of seats on the District Council is 431, with 19 seats added since the last elections.
