What are District Councils?

Wikipedia: The District Councils, known as District Boards before 1999, are the local councils for the eighteen districts in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. They are consultative bodies on district administration and other affairs.

What is the role of District Councils in Hong Kong politics?

The term consultative bodies means that the District Councils dont have real legislative power. Instead they give advice to government on various things.

• matters affecting the well-being of the people in the district
• the provision and use of public facilities and services within the district
• the adequacy and priorities of government programmes for the district
• the use of public funds allocated to the district for local public works and community activities

Where funds are made available for the purpose, District Councils can also undertake:

• environmental improvements within the district
• the promotion of recreational and cultural activities within the district
• community activities within the district.

The district councils also advise on the management of community halls, which should be in the best interest of the local residents. The district councils initiate, organise and sponsor community involvement projects and activities aimed at enhancing community spirit and social cohesion and promoting the well-being of people in the districts. These range from large-scale district festivals to the formation of local youth choirs and dance troupes. They have also achieved notable success in improving the local environment by undertaking minor environmental improvement projects such as the provision of rest gardens, rain shelters and amenity planting. In the 2003/04 financial year, $205.6 million has been allocated for the district councils.

What is the relationship between District Councils and Legislative Council?

The Legislative Council (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It has 60 seats, 30 which are selected by functional constituencies. A functional constituencyis a professional or special interest group involved in the electoral process. One of these functional constituencies is District Council. At the moment moment mr. Lau Wong Fat is responsible of District Councils in LegCo.

How many District Councilors are there?

There are 534 member of whom 405 are elected members, 102 appointed members and 27 ex-officio members (Rural Committee Chairmen in the New Territories). So there are 405 seats available in the election. In this page there is a list of the districts and how many members belong to each district.

How many candidates are there in this years election?

There were 918 candidates in the list when the nomination period ended. 907 of them were considered valid on 25th November. 41 of these candidates were elected unopposed. So there are 866 candidates competing on the remaining 364 seats.

Who can vote in the election?

All Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or above who are ordinarily residing in Hong Kong are eligible to register as electors. A total of around 3.29 million registered electors whose names have been included in the 2007 Final Register of Electors for Geographical Constituencies may cast their vote in the election.

Only about 2.96 million registered electors in 364 constituencies received their poll cards though. The 336,874 electors in the uncontested constituencies will not have to vote. They will receive a notice of uncontested nomination and a leaflet introducing the elected candidate of their respective constituency.
What are the major issues in this years District Council election?

1) Local issues

Each district has their own issues. It is often stated that the District Councilors' most important mission is to take care of their own district's issues. That is the voters' main concern.

2) Issues concerning whole Hong Kong

There are some major issues that play a role in the election, like the question of universal suffrage or environmental issues like air pollution. These, however, seem to be not as important in the election as the local issues.