Turnout 25.8% 2.5pp 12 4 36.91% 17.53% | New party New party 205,823 97,765 N/A N/A | |
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The 1995 Urban Council and Regional Council Elections were the municipal elections held on 5 March 1995 for the elected seats of the Urban Council and Regional Council respectively.
Overview
Due to the democratisation reform under the governorship of Chris Patten, all the appointed seats since the creations of the Councils were replaced by members of direct elections. 32 seats in the Urban Council was the directly elected by the general residents and 9 seats were elected by the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon District Boards members. For Regional Council, 27 seats were directly elected and 9 seats were elected by the New Territories District Boards members, with 3 ex-officio members of the Chairman and two chairmen of the Heung Yee Kuk. The first-past-the-post voting system was used.
Dozens of long-serving Urban and Regional Councillors decided not to stand in the first full-scale municipal-level elections. The most senior member on the Urban Council Brook Bernacchi who was first elected in 1952 would not stand because the council was becoming increasingly politicised. Elsie Tu, the second most senior Councillor was challenged and defeated by the Democratic Party heavweight Szeto Wah for the Kwun Tong North seat.
As a result, 21 Urban Councillors left in 1995 taking with them a total of 210 years of experience.
After the transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, the Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa decided to streamline and centralise municipal services as part of his government's policy reforms by dissolving the two Councils. The 1995 election thus became the last election.