New Territories West (1998 constituency)

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New Territories West
Former Geographical constituency
for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
NewTerritoriesWestConstituency.svg
Boundary of New Territories West in Hong Kong
District Tsuen Wan District
Tuen Mun District
Yuen Long District
Kwai Tsing District
Islands District
Region New Territories
Population2,174,700 (2020) [1]
Electorate1,308,081 (2020) [2]
Former constituency
Created 1998
Abolished 2021
Number of membersFive (1998–2000)
Six (2000–2004)
Eight (2004–2012)
Nine (2012–2021)
Created from New Territories Central,
New Territories North-west (1995),
New Territories South,
New Territories South-west (1995),
New Territories West (1995)
Replaced by Hong Kong Island West (2021),
New Territories North West (2021),
New Territories South West (2021)

The New Territories West geographical constituency was one of the geographical constituencies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council election and was abolished under the 2021 overhaul of the Hong Kong electoral system. Located in the western part of the New Territories, it was the largest geographical constituency in Hong Kong with 1,308,081 electorates in 2020. It consisted of Tsuen Wan District, Kwai Tsing District, Tuen Mun District, Yuen Long District and Islands District. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, it elected nine members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation.

Contents

History

The single-constituency single-vote system was replaced by the party-list proportional representation system for the first SAR Legislative Council election designed by Beijing to reward the weaker pro-Beijing candidates and dilute the electoral strength of the majority pro-democrats. [3] Five seats were allocated to New Territories West, where the pro-democrats took four of the seats with one seat went to Tam Yiu-chung of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) with nearly one-fifth of the popular vote. Pro-grassroots democrats Lee Cheuk-yan of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) and Leung Yiu-chung of the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre (NWSC) each won a seat, with pro-democracy flagship party Democratic Party took two seats with Lee Wing-tat and Albert Ho being elected.

One extra seat was added to the constituency in the 2000 Legislative Council election, where the Democratic Party split their tickets into three in order to maximise its chance to win one more seat, due to the unique design of the Hare quota of the party-list proportional representation. Different zones were set up for each ticket to gather their votes, Kwai Tsing and Islands Districts for Lee Wing-tat, Tuen Mun and rural Yueng Long for Albert Ho and Tsuen Wan, Yuen Long Town Centre, Tin Shui Wai and a small part of Tuen Mun for Albert Chan. [4] With the rural support of the DAB–PA joint ticket, Tang Siu-tong was able to beat the Democratic tickets to gain the extra seat at the expense of Lee Wing-tat who lost the re-election.

In the 2004 Legislative Council election, the number of seats in New Territories West was increased to eight, where the two new seats were taken by Lee Wing-tat who came back from his loss, and Selina Chow of the Liberal Party who rode on the popularity gained from the party's opposition 2003 Basic Law Article 23 legislation. Selina Chow lost her 2008 re-election which she complained the rural votes were taken away by DAB's rural candidate Cheung Hok-ming. [5] Chow was replaced by veteran trade unionist Wong Kwok-hing of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).

In 2010, Albert Chan of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) resigned from the office to rigger a by-election as a de facto referendum on the government's constitutional reform proposal. Chan was re-elected with a low turnout due to the government and pro-Beijing boycott. [6]

The deal on the modified constitutional reform proposal struck by the moderate democrats and the Beijing authorities expanded the number of the geographical constituency seats from 30 to 35, where the seats in New Territories West were increased to nine. The DAB deployed an offensive strategy by splitting their ticket into three separate ones, led by Tam Yiu-chung, Leung Che-cheung and Chan Han-pan respectively. All three DAB tickets were elected, taking the advantage on the miscalculation of the pro-democrats, where the Civic Party took a overly aggressive strategy by fielding Kwok Ka-ki and Audrey Eu on the same ticket , hoping to win two seats. As a result, the Civics failed to get Eu elected and wasted votes at the expense on the Democratic Party who saw Lee Wing-tat and Josephine Chan both failed to win a seat. With Michael Tien of the New People's Party (NPP) also won a seat and Alice Mak retained a seat for the FTU, the pro-Beijing camp achieved a majority in New Territories West for the first time by winning five seats compared to pro-democrats' four.

The pro-Beijing camp retained its majority in the 2016 Legislative Council election, as the pro-democrats again split their votes in the overcrowding field. Localist camp Eddie Chu and Civic Passion's Cheng Chung-tai were elected with high votes among the opposition candidate, while Civic Kwok Ka-ki and Democrat Andrew Wan took the two other seats. Veteran Lee Cheuk-yan of the Labour Party was unexpectedly defeated by pro-Beijing independent Junius Ho with a margin of 0.91 percentage point, who took Tam Yiu-chung's place who was retiring.

Members returned

Below are all the members since the creation of the New Territories West constituency. The number of seats allocated to New Territories has been increased from five to nine between 1998 and 2012 due to the enlargement.

LegCo members for New Territories West, 1998–2021
TermElectionMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMember
1st 1998 Lee Wing-tat
(DP)		 Tam Yiu-chung
(DAB)		 Albert Ho
(DP)		 Lee Cheuk-yan
(TF→CTU→Lab/CTU)		 Leung Yiu-chung
(NWSC)
2nd 2000 Albert Chan
(DP→Ind→LSD)		 Tang Siu-tong
(PA)
3rd 2004 Cheung Hok-ming
(DAB)		 Lee Wing-tat
(DP)		 Selina Chow
(LP)
4th 2008 Wong Kwok-hing
(FTU)
Vacant
2010 (b) Albert Chan
(LSD→PP)
5th 2012 Kwok Ka-ki
(CP)		 Leung Che-cheung
(DAB/NTAS)		 Michael Tien
(NPP→RT)		 Alice Mak
(FTU)		 Chan Han-pan
(DAB/NTAS)
6th 2016 Cheng Chung-tai
(Civic Passion)		 Junius Ho
(Ind)		 Eddie Chu
(Ind)		 Andrew Wan
(DP)
Vacant
VacantVacantVacant

Summary of seats won

TermElectionDistribution
1st 1998
41
2nd 2000
42
3rd 2004
53
4th 2008
53
5th 2012
45
6th 2016
45
199820002004200820122016
Democratic 22221
DAB 112232
Frontier 1
NWSC 1111
CTU 111
Progressive Alliance 1
Liberal 1
FTU 111
LSD 1
Civic 11
People Power 1
Labour 1
NPP 11
Civic Passion 1
Independent 112
Pro-democracy445544
Pro-Beijing123355
Seats568899

Vote share summary

199820002004200820122016
Democratic 39.234.326.923.211.86.9
DAB 19.429.624.923.122.818.0
Frontier 12.5
NWSC 10.317.312.710.78.83.5
ADPL 5.23.11.73.4
Liberal 0.82.710.95.40.2
CTU 15.29.910.6
FTU 9.07.18.2
LSD 8.11.94.7
Civic 7.014.57.0
People Power 8.9
Labour 8.25.0
NPP 7.611.7
Civic Passion 9.0
Youngspiration 1.7
Independent and Others12.71.010.61.08.520.6
Pro-democracy71.266.760.561.354.655.2
Pro-Beijing28.832.338.737.543.044.4

Election results

The largest remainder method (with Hare quota) of the proportional representative electoral system was introduced in 1998, replacing the single-member constituencies of the 1995 election. Elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the quota + remainder.

2010s

2016 LegCo Election New Territories West.svg
↓
1112121
Vote share
  1. DAB (18.04%)
  2. NPP (11.71%)
  3. Civic Passion (9.03%)
  4. FTU (8.23%)
  5. Civic (7.02%)
  6. Democratic (6.91%)
  7. Labour (5%)
  8. LSD/PP (4.73%)
  9. NWSC (3.48%)
  10. ADPL (2.96%)
  11. Youngspiration (1.65%)
  12. Liberal (0.24%)
  13. Christians to the World (0.14%)
  14. Politihk SS (0.14%)
  15. Other (20.7%)

2000s

2008 LegCo Election New Territories West.svg
↓
111221
Vote share
  1. Democratic (23.2%)
  2. DAB (23.1%)
  3. NWSC (10.7%)
  4. CTU (10.6%)
  5. FTU (9%)
  6. LSD (8.1%)
  7. Civic (7%)
  8. Liberal (5.4%)
  9. ADPL (1.7%)
  10. Other (1.20%)

1990s

↓
1211
Vote share
  1. Democratic (39.2%)
  2. DAB (19.4%)
  3. Frontier (12.5%)
  4. ADPL (5.2%)
  5. Liberal (0.8%)
  6. 123DA (0.8%)
  7. Other (22.1%)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Number of Seats for the Geographical Constituencies" (PDF). Electoral Affairs Commission.
  2. ↑ "Voter Registration Statistics: Geographical Constituency". Registration and Electoral Office.
  3. ↑ Diamond, Larry; Myers, Ramon H. (2001). Elections and Democracy in Greater China. OUP Oxford. pp. 1985–6.
  4. ↑ "【立會選舉評論】分區配票的成效（文﹕蔡子強、陳雋）". 明報. 20 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "周梁 發叔決裂". 東方日報. 10 September 2008.
  6. ↑ "2010 LegCo By-election". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "2010 LegCo By-election". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "2008 Legislative Election". Electoral Affairs Commission. 8 September 2008. Archived from the original on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "2004 Legislative Election". Electoral Affairs Commission. 15 December 2004. Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "立法會選舉結果". Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2002.
  11. ↑ "Legco election overall result". Electoral Affairs Commission.

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