TheRural Representative elections are the quadrennial elections to elect the rural representatives which consist of the village representatives andkaifong representatives in theNew Territories ofHong Kong. The rural representatives are responsible for electing the executive committees of their respectiverural committees in which to elect the members of theHeung Yee Kuk.

The Rural community in theNew Territories has all the time had its own village representative elections. The previous electoral systems for a village or a group of villages came up around the end ofWorld War II, in which they were conducted privately on a clan basis. All the candidates and electors were theindigenous inhabitants, ie person who could establish their patrilineal descent from a resident of a village that was in existence before the 1898Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory.^[1]

In 1994, theHeung Yee Kuk drew up a set of "Model Rules" for the elections of some 700 villages, which were held every four years. The appointment of the elected village representatives had to be approved by theSecretary for Home Affairs. The "Model rules" system prevailed until 1999 when two non-indigenous inhabitants, Chan Wah ofPo Toi O inSai Kung and Tse Kwan-sang of Shek Wu Tong inYuen Long challenged the validity of the electoral arrangements in their villages by judicial review proceedings. Chan was denied the right to vote even though he married an indigenous inhabitants while Tse was denied the right to stand. The cases were eventually heard by theCourt of Final Appeal in December 2000, which ruled that the electoral arrangements were inconsistent with theHong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance while those in Po Toi O were also inconsistent with the Sex Discrimination Ordinance.^[1]

In view of the rulings, there were calls on the government to bring village representative elections under a statutory framework. In 2003, the government enacted the Village Representative Election Ordinance (Cap. 576), which was later renamed as Rural Representative Election Ordinance in 2014.^[2] In the proposal, the election would be held in an electoral system of two types of village representatives which represent both the indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants.^[1]

The Village Representative Election Ordinance (Cap. 576) was later renamed as Rural Representative Election Ordinance in 2014,^[2] which created a new type of kaifong representative which only were introduced inCheung Chau andPeng ChauRural Committee of theIslands District, for the electing non-village representatives to reflect views on local affairs on behalf of Cheung Chau and Peng Chau residents.^[2]

There are three different types of rural representatives. Under the village representatives, there are indigenous inhabitant representatives and resident representatives. Indigenous inhabitants are returned by the elector of indigenous inhabitants which have the exclusive power to deal with all affairs relating to traditional rights and interests of the indigenous villages, while resident representatives are to reflect view on behalf of the non-indigenous residents. Kaifong representatives only exist in Cheung Chau and Peng Chau which are elected by the market towns of the respective areas.^[3]

As most of the representatives were elected without opposition under a limited electoral base, Cheung Chau's Kaifong Representatives election was the focus for its relatively large number of seats and constituents.

Since Cheung Chau rural election became statutorily regulated by the authorities in 2015, it had been dominated by two main lists: reformist Cheung Chau Synergy, led by ex-Cheung Chau South councillor Ken Kwong Koon-wan, and conservative Cheung Chau Community Alliance, led by ex-Cheung Chau North councillor Lee Kwai-chun and chairman of Cheung Chau Rural Committee Yung Chi-ming.

• Rural Representative Election Official Website
• Rural Representative Election (Amendment) Ordinance 2014

• Elections in Hong Kong

• CS1 Traditional Chinese-language sources (zh-hant)