Neo Democrats

Formation

The Neo Democrats identified themselves initially as a grouping within the Democratic Party, opposed to its rejection of the Five Constituencies Referendum and concessions towards Beijing that the party was offering in the run-up to the Legco vote on the Hong Kong government's proposals for democratic reform. It said it aimed to repair the damaged relationship between the Democratic Party and its pan-democratic allies.

As the Neo Democrats styled themselves a continuation of the United Democrats of Hong Kong, they chose to found the group on an anniversary of both the dissolution of UDHK and the foundation of the Democratic Party.

Then on 19 December 2010, thirty members including seven district councillors in the New Territories East resigned from the Democratic Party to formally create the new group. The departees included former party vice-chairman Chan King-ming and at least five other founding members, together representing around ten percent of the Democratic Party's district councillors and just under five percent of its membership.

Organisation and membership

Members of the grouping include Sai Kung district councillors Gary Fan, Leung Li and Cheung Kwok-keung, and former Democratic Party's vice-chairman Chan King-ming.

The Neo Democrats' leadership comprises four 'convenors', who take individual charge for rotating six-month terms. Convenors currently include Gary Fan.

Immigration and Localism

The Neo Democrats represented by Gary Fan have been calling for the government to take back the approval rights on one-way permits from Chinese authorities and to reduce the quota of such permits. Fan also refers to immigrants from mainland China and the quota of 150 daily permits as "the root of the housing problem".

In September 2013, Gary Fan co-sponsored a controversial ad which claimed that cutting people from the source of immigration would help the people of Hong Kong to get to the bottom of the housing problem, while rejecting claims of bias or discrimination against mainlanders, despite condemnation from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Fan later introduced a motion on adhering to the need to "put Hong Kong people first" in formulating policies, but the motion was ultimately defeated. Fan's motion was rejected by both camps of pro-Beijing and pan-Democrats.

Electoral politics

In the 2015 District Council election, Neo Democrats became the best performers when 15 out of their 16 candidates fielded won, the total number of seats having increased from 7 to 15 since the previous election. They became one of the successful group in the pan-democrats, compare to other pan-democrat groups.

Frankie Lam returned to Neo Democrat in April 2016. He is a Sai Kung District Council member and was a Neo Democrat member in 2010, before the group formally split from the Democratic Party. Lam decided to remain in the Democratic Party until 2016, due to Neo Democrat is the largest pan-democrat party in Sai Kung District Council.

In the 2016 Legislative Council election, the Neo Democrats initially planned to field candidates in Kowloon East, New Territories West, District Council (Second), as well as seek for re-election in its incumbent New Territories East seat. It later decided to field two lists in New Territories East and District Council (Second) "super seat" despite the group's breakaway from the Democratic Party due to its opposition to the creation of the five "super seats" in 2010. Kwan Wing-yip, Neo Democrats' District Council (Second) candidate, refused to join the pan-democracy camp's coordination plan initiated by Benny Tai to avoid splitting the pro-democracy votes, abandoned his campaign one day before the election due to the pressure to help the pan-democracy camp to win three seats. As a result, Kwan's ticket won only 1.24 per cent of the vote share and its sole legislator Gary Fan lost his re-election in New Territories East by winning 5.44 per cent of the vote share. Three Sha Tin District Councillors, Billy Chan Shiu-yeung, Chiu Chu-pong and Yau Man-chun, defected to former legislator Andrew Cheng during the election were expelled from the party on 6 September.