Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood

Founding

The ADPL was founded on 26 October 1986 as a political organisation by a group of incumbent Urban Councillors, District Board members, members from mainly four grassroots organisations and professionals, the Association for Democracy and Justice, the Society for Social Research, the New Hong Kong Society, the Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy, the Septentrio Academy and the Sham Shui Po Residents Livelihood Concern Group. The founding chairman was Ding Lik-kiu and vice-chairmen were Frederick Fung and Lee Wing-tat.

Late colonial period

Initially, the ADPL engaged in the electoral reform debate, advocating direct election of the legislature in 1988. It supported the liberal proposals put forward by the Group of 190 coalition. The ADPL was one of the three major pro-democracy groups and performed fairly well in the local and municipal elections the 1980s with its strategic allies the Meeting Point and the Hong Kong Affairs Society. At its peak, it had 140 members, 28 District Board members, one Legislative Councillor, 5 municipal councillors.

In 1990, some leading figures of the ADPL such as vice-chairmen Lee Wing-tat and Albert Chan joined the United Democrats of Hong Kong, which later became the Democratic Party. The ADPL continued to keep its own identity, arguing that it represented grassroots interests whereas the United Democrats were more focused on the middle class.^[4] However, as many members joined the new party, the ADPL's membership dropped significantly to only 70 members, 15 District Board members and 2 municipal councillors.

As the ADPL chairman Frederick Fung was elected to the Legislative Council in the 1991 direct election and other members were elected to municipal councils, the ADPL regained its stability and matured from a political organisation to a political party in 1992.^[5] It won one seat in the first direct election of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) in 1991 when Fung was elected. In the 1995 election, the party won four seats. At the time, due to near-parity of representation between the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps in Legco, the stance of the moderate ADPL was influential and often pivotal on controversial issues.

On the issue of the establishment of the Provisional Legislative Council, the ADPL initially opposed but then agreed to join the interim body. This led to a group of 16 members leaving to form the Social Democratic Front.^[6] ADPL became the only pro-democracy party in the legislature immediately after the establishment of the HKSAR, keeping four members in the interim body. ADPL members also served on the Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the HKSAR.

After 1997

The ADPL lost all its seats in the 1998 Legco election. In the 2000 election, long-time chairman Frederick Fung recovered his directly elected seat in Legco for the ADPL.

At the district level, ADPL traditionally enjoyed a concentration of support in the Sham Shui Po District, with numerous seats across other District councils in the 1990s but it largely lost its influence outside of Sham Shui Po in the early 2000s. The party's seats mainly concentrated in Sham Shui Po, followed by Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon City Districts in Kowloon West, where Frederick Fung retook his Legco seat in, as well as Wong Tai Sin and Tuen Mun. The party suffered a defeat in the 2007 District Council election which led to Fung's resignation and he was replaced by Bruce Liu.

The ADPL supported the controversial electoral reform package which created five seats in the District Council (Second) functional constituencies which are nominated by District Councillors and elected by all registered voters. In a pan-democrat primary, Fung contested candidacy for the 2012 Chief Executive election but was defeated by the Democratic Party's Albert Ho. He was subsequently re-elected in the new constituency in the 2012 Legco election. Tam Kwok-kiu, however, failed to succeed Fung in Kowloon West, the ADPL's stronghold, its first loss there since 1998.

In the 2015 District Council election, the ADPL won 18 seats while veteran Frederick Fung lost his seat in Lai Kok to Chan Wing-yan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). Former party member Eric Wong Chung-ki also contested the constituency. On 23 January 2016, Rosanda Mok, former vice chairman of the party, was elected the first female chairperson in the party's history.

Ousted from the LegCo and split

Fung ran in the New Territories West after losing his eligibility to run in District Council (Second) in the 2016 Legislative Council election, while his party colleague Tam Kwok-kiu ran in Kowloon West for the second time. Kalvin Ho Kai-ming, a new Kowloon City District Councillor represented the ADPL to run in the District Council (Second). Both Fung and Tam lost in the election with Ho withdrew from the campaign in order to boost other pro-democrat candidates' chance to win. As a result, the ADPL was ousted from the legislature for the second time. Rosanda Mok resigned for the election defeat. In December, the party elected Sze Tak-loy as new chairman.

In the end of 2016 and early 2017, the ADPL's six district councillors, which included all its members from Yau Tsim Mong District Council and Kowloon City District Council, quit the party over the disputes on the intra party primary of the March 2018 Kowloon West by-election, in which Frederick Fung intended to run. The number of the ADPL District Councillors dropped from 18 to 12 as a result.^[7] Kalvin Ho, who also intended to run in the primary, later announced his withdrawal from the primary.^[8] As the party resolved to nominate Fung, former chairperson Rosanda Mok also left the party in June 2017.^[9] After losing to Yiu Chung-yim in the primary, Fung announced he would not become the backup candidate if Yiu's candidacy was disqualified amid allegedly pressure from the progressive democrats forcing him to withdraw.^[10] On 12 July 2018, Fung announced his departure from the ADPL amid speculation that he was going to run for the November Kowloon West by-election as the party intended to back Lau Siu-lai.^[11]

Chief Executive elections

Legislative Council elections

Election	Number of popular votes	% of popular votes	GC seats	FC seats	EC seats	Total seats	+/−	Position
1991	60,770	4.44	1	0	–	1 / 60	0	5th
1995	87,072	9.50	2	1	1	4 / 60	3	4th
1998	59,034	3.99	0	0	0	0 / 60	–	–
2000	62,717	4.75	1	0	1	1 / 60	1	7th
2004	74,671	4.18	1	0		1 / 60	0	4th
2008	42,211	2.79	1	0		1 / 60	0	7th
2012	30,634	1.69	0	1		1 / 70	0	10th
2016	33,255	1.53	0	0		0 / 70	1	–

Note: Each voter got two votes in the 1991 Election.

Municipal elections

Election	Number of popular votes	% of popular votes	UrbCo seats	RegCo seats	Total elected seats
1989	21,243	9.99	2 / 15	2 / 12	4 / 27
1991	21,033	5.37	2 / 15	0 / 12	2 / 27
1995	38,918	6.98	5 / 32	3 / 27	8 / 59

District Council elections

Election	Number of popular votes	% of popular votes	Total elected seats	+/−
1988	65,338	10.25	27 / 264	13
1991	27,979	5.26	15 / 272	3
1994	47,740	6.95	29 / 346	12
1999	38,119	4.70	19 / 390	1
2003	53,264	5.07	25 / 400	4
2007	52,386	4.60	17 / 405	7
2011	45,453	3.85	15 / 412	1
2015	55,275	3.82	18 / 431	2

Chairpersons

• Ding Lik-kiu, 1986–89
• Frederick Fung, 1989–2007
  • Bruce Liu, acting 2007–08
• Bruce Liu, 2008–16
• Rosanda Mok, 2016
  • Sze Tak-loy, acting 2016
• Sze Tak-loy, 2016–present

Vice Chairpersons

• Frederick Fung, 1986–89
• Lee Wing-tat, 1986–89
• Law Cheung-kwok, 1989–98
• Leung Kwong-cheong, 1989–96
• Bruce Liu, 1906–2007
• Yim Tin-sang, 1998–2008
• Tam Kwok-kiu, 2008–present
• Rosanda Mok, 2008–13
• Wong Chi-yung, 2013–14
• Pius Yum, 2014–16
• Sze Tak-loy, 2016
• Kalvin Ho, 2016–present
• Yeung Yuk, 2016–present