# Democratic Party (Hong Kong)

The Democratic Party (DP) is a liberal political party in Hong Kong. Once the flagship party in the pro-democracy camp, it is expected to dissolve within 2025 after the party was unable to enter elections with national security threshold imposed.
The party was established in 1994 in a merger of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and Meeting Point in preparation for the 1995 Legislative Council election. The party won a landslide victory, received over 40 percent of the popular vote and became the largest party in the legislature in the final years of the British colonial era. It opposes the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and called for the end of one-party rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); the party has long been seen as hostile to the Beijing authorities.
Led by Martin Lee, the Democratic Party boycotted the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) on the eve of the Hong Kong handover in 1997 in protest to Beijing's decision to dismantle the agreed transition, but reemerged as the largest party in the first SAR Legislative Council election of 1998. Due to the Beijing-installed proportional representation voting system, the Democrats embattled in bitter factional conflicts in the early post-handover era. Although the party's popularity briefly rebounded after the 2003 pro-democracy demonstration, its dominance was gradually eclipsed by the emergence of the new parties.
As a response to the electoral gains of the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats (LSD), the Democratic Party merged with Emily Lau's The Frontier in 2008. The party made a surprising move by negotiating with the Beijing officials over the constitutional reform package in 2010. It resulted in a catastrophic split within the pro-democracy camp. Being ferociously attacked by the radical democrats, the party sharply lost support in the 2012 Legislative Council election, retaining only six seats. Afterwards, the Democrats underwent a rejuvenation process in which most veterans retired and made way for the new generation in the 2016 election.
Following the widespread anti-government movement in 2019, the party won a landslide victory in the local elections. After the imposition of the Hong Kong national security law in July 2020 and subsequent disqualifications of four pro-democracy camp legislators, all legislator of the party, along with the whole camp's, resigned in protest. It left the party with no representation for the first time since 1998. In January 2021, the leading party seniors were arrested under the security law. The government introduced a requirement that all district councillors had to swear an oath of allegiance to Hong Kong and China, upon which many pro-democracy councillors, fearful of retroactive disqualification and bankruptcy threats, chose to resign from their office. The party did not run in any elections thereafter, which were limited to government-approved "patriots" only. Despite remaining a low profile in the later years, the party reportedly face pressure from Beijing and eventually started preparing to dissolve in 2025.

## History
### Founding

The United Democrats of Hong Kong and the Meeting Point further united by announcing the formation of the Democratic Party on 18 April 1994. They formally merged into the Democratic Party on 2 October 1994, in eve of the three-tier elections in 1994 and 1995. Martin Lee became the first Chairman of the party and Anthony Cheung and Yeung Sum became the Vice-Chairmen, elected on the first general meeting on the establishment day. The ADPL continued to keep its own identity, arguing that it represented grassroots' interest whereas the Democratic Party was more focused on the "middle class".
The founding manifesto of the Democratic Party said it would seek to further unite democratic forces, strive for a high degree of autonomy and an open, democratic government, and would promote welfare and equality in Hong Kong. The party also tried to appropriate the discourse of nationalism as it stated "We care for China and, as part of the Chinese citizenry, we have the rights and obligations to participate in and comment on the affairs of China." It also called for the condemnation of the 1989 Tiananmen Incident as well as an amendment of the Hong Kong Basic Law before 1997 to allow full election of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

### Late colonial period (1994–1998)

The electorate base of the 1995 LegCo election was largely extended by the Governor Chris Patten's controversial electoral reform package supported by the pro-democrats. Facing the challenge from the newly formed business conservative Liberal Party and pro-Beijing loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the Democratic Party was able to win handsome victories in the three-tier elections in 1994 and 1995. In the LegCo election in September 1995, the party secured 42% of the vote and 19 of the 60 total seats, emerging as the largest party in the Legislative Council, compared to Liberal Party's 10 seats and DAB's 6 seats. Together with the ADPL and other pro-democracy independents, the democratic coalition was able to garner one- or two-vote majorities on certain anti-government issues during the last term of the legislature.
After Patten's reform package was passed, Beijing decided that the legislature elected in 1995 could not ride the "through train" beyond the handover of Hong Kong, as the first legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Instead, Beijing set up a highly controlled Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) in December 1996. The Democratic Party refused to join the Selection Committee as it opposed to Beijing's decision "to scrap Hong Kong's elected legislature and replace it with a hand-picked version." The party thus lost all 19 seats until the PLC was replaced by the first Legislative Council of the Hong Kong SAR in 1998.
At the midnight on 30 June just after the handover ceremony, the Democratic Party LegCo members protested against the abrupt termination of their tenure and call for the establishment of democratic government at the balcony of the Legislative Council Building, and vow to return to the legislature by means of election in 1998.

### Early divisions (1998–2002)

Decided by the Provisional Legislative Council, the first-past-the-post voting system was replaced by the proportional representation system in the first LegCo election in 1998. The proportional representation gave an advantage to the weaker pro-Beijing DAB as it did not require a majority to win a seat. Thus in 1995 the Democratic Party won 12 seats in the geographical constituencies with 42.3% of the vote, but it got only 9 seat with 40.2% of the vote in 1998.
After the handover, the Right of Abode litigation was initiated immediately and reached its climax in the Court of Final Appeal's (CFA) decisions favouring the right of abode seekers in Ng Ka Ling and Chan Kam Nga lawsuits in January 1999. The Democratic Party supported the right of abode seekers and opposed strongly to the government's decision to refer the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) to interpret the Basic Law. Party chairman Martin Lee condemned this move as "a dagger striking at the heart of the rule of law" and in symbolic protest walked out of the Legislative Council with 18 other members, all dressed in black. However, the party appeared to suffer from popular discontent with the party's position. The party was also criticised for failing to broaden its post-1997 agenda and develop a well-defined social base.
The party also appeared to suffer from the internal dissension. In December 1998, the "Young Turks" led by Andrew To staged a successful coup d'état in the party leadership election, which promptly brought the party into a phase of factional struggle. The Young Turks formed their own list of about ten candidates to run for the Central Committee and nominated Lau Chin-shek to run for vice-chairman against the former Meeting Point chairman Anthony Cheung. Some hoped to make Lau as their factional leader, to lead the party from the Meeting Point faction's pro-middle class, pro-laissez-faire and pro-Beijing positions to a more pro-grassroots and confrontational position. Although Lau was elected vice-chairman, he resigned after the election. Lau was subsequently forced to leave the party in June 2000 after a one-year membership freeze, due to Lau's Democratic Party/Frontier dual membership.
In a general meeting in September 1999, the Young Turks also proposed to put the minimum wage legislation on the 2000 LegCo election platform of the party. The Mainstreamers which included the "triumvirate", Yeung Sum, Cheung Man-kwong and Lee Wing-tat, saw the minimum wage debate was a challenge to the party authority and decide to fight back by joining hands with the Meeting Point faction to defeat the Young Turks. Andrew To wrote a newspaper article accusing the Mainstreamers of suppressing intra-party dissent, "just like the butchers in the Tiananmen massacre." To's comment led to a backlash of opinion within the party and led to the defeat of the minimum wage motion. The debate, largely took place in the mass media, publicised the factional rivalries and created a bad image within the party.
The popular discontent and internal fragmentation appeared to have marked a turning point in the prospects of the Democratic Party and the DAB. In the 1999 District Council elections, the DAB more than doubled its representation, while Democratic Party performed less well than anticipated, winning 86 seats. In the second LegCo election in the following year, Tsang Kin-shing and Steve Chan Kwok-leung left the party and ran as independents after failing to be nominated on the candidates list by the Central Committee. The election results showed the party's share in the geographical constituencies dropped to 35%, and the party secured 9 out of the 24 directly elected seats. Its total number of seats in LegCo remained at 12.
In December 2002, Yeung Sum succeeded Martin Lee as Party chairman in the leadership change, legislator Albert Chan, belonging to the pro-grassroots relatively "radical" faction, left the party. By the end of 2002, more than 50 members of the party which had already formed a political group, Social Democratic Forum, defected to the Frontier, mostly Young Turks.

### Rebound in popularity (2002–2004)

In 2002 and 2003 the party saw a rebound in popularity, largely due to the low popularity of the Tung Chee-hwa's administration, and more significantly the controversy over the Basic Law Article 23 legislation. The pro-democrats worried that the anti-subversion law would threaten the rights and freedom of the Hong Kong people and damaged the rule of law and "One Country, Two Systems." The Article 23 legislation turned into a territory-wide debate and led to a re-awakening of civil society, mobilising different sectors to join the opposition movement. The Democratic Party used many of their 94 district offices for community-level mobilisation. In the weeks before the 1 July march, the Democratic Party managed to collect phone numbers of about 40,000 supporters. The party's volunteers and staff called them one by one to call on them to join the demonstration. The demonstration resulted in a record-breaking number of people, more than 500,000 Hong Kong people joined the march. The SAR government had to back down and shelve the bill indefinitely.
In the following 2003 District Council elections in November, the pro-democracy camp turned the popular support into the demand of democratisation, universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and Legislative Council in 2007 and 2008, their primary goals for years. The Democratic Party received a great victory by claiming 95 seats out of the 120 candidates in the election.
The civil movement in 2003 also broadened the spectrum of the pro-democracy camp. A number of pro-democracy groups such as Article 45 Concern Group and individuals such as Leung Kwok-hung and Albert Cheng were elected in the 2004 LegCo election. Although the pan-democracy camp took 25 of 60 seats, the Democratic Party won only 9 seats, falling from the largest party in the Legislative Council to the third, behind DAB's 13 (including the FTU members) and pro-business Liberal Party's 10. Worried by pre-election surveys indicating that Martin Lee might be in danger, the Democratic Party sent out a last minute S.O.S. call to "save Martin Lee" who was listed second on the Democratic Party's list behind chairman Yeung Sum in the Hong Kong Island constituency. As a result, Yeung's and Lee's list absorbed too many votes at the expense of pro-democracy ally Cyd Ho losing by just 815 votes to DAB's Choy So-yuk. It caused some dissatisfaction among some supporters of the party and the camp generally. Yeung Sum announced he would not seek for re-election as chairman after the election as a result and subsequently replaced by Lee Wing-tat in the party leadership election in December.

### Young Turks out and Frontier in (2004–2008)

In October 2005, Donald Tsang's administration issued a blueprint for the electoral reform. The proposal aimed to double to size of Election Committee to 1,600 and add 10 seats to the Legislative Council, half of which would be directly elected and the rest returned by District Councillors. The pro-democracy parties criticised the proposal as conservative as it did not move towards to universal suffrage. In December, the camp held a mass rally against the government's reform package and demanded a timetable and road-map to democracy be attached to the proposal. The reform package was at last vetoed by the pan-democracy camp. In December 2006, 114 of the 137 pro-democracy candidates filled by the Democratic Party and the newly established Civic Party won the Election Committee subsector elections which secured the threshold of 100 nominations to enter the next Chief Executive election.
The democrats suffered a humiliating defeat in the District Council elections in November 2007. The Democratic Party took the heaviest loss of 36 seats as compared with 2003. 23 of the party's incumbent Councillors were ousted, with just over half of its candidates elected. The Democratic Party was by far outstripped by the Beijing loyalist DAB which won total of 115 seats, recapturing the loss in 2003 and also much expanding.
In the 2008 LegCo election, the Democratic Party's share of vote further dropped to 20.6%, winning only 8 seats. The emerging pro-democratic parties professionals-formed Civic Party and left-wing League of Social Democrats (LSD) took the share of 13.7% and 10.1% and won 5 and 3 seats respectively. Facing the emerging new parties, the two old political parties the Democratic Party and the Frontier merged. At the time, the Democratic Party had 636 members, 8 legislators and 57 District Council members, while the Frontier had one legislator, Emily Lau, three District Councillors and around 110 members. In the following month, Albert Ho was re-elected chairman, and Emily Lau became a Vice-Chairman of the new combined party in the party leadership election.

### 2010 reform negotiations (2008–2012)

In the following electoral reform for the 2012 Chief Executive and LegCo elections in 2009 and 2010, Donald Tsang proposed a reform package which had not much difference from the 2005 proposal. The pan-democracy camp were saying they were going to veto it again. The Civic Party and League of Social Democrats launched a de facto referendum by resigning and triggering territory-wide by-elections to let the voters voice out their demand on democracy. The Democratic Party refused to participate as it argued it was not an effective way. The party's heavyweight veteran Szeto Wah said the Democratic Party would not join in the resignations itself, but would support pan-democrats who stood for re-election. In December 2009, the Democratic Party members voted 229 voted against, 54 in favour and one abstention not to join the resignation plan after a four-hour debate at a general meeting.
Instead in May 2010, the party leaders met with the officials of the Central Government's Liaison Office in Hong Kong to negotiate on the reform package, which was the first meeting between Democratic Party leaders and senior officials from the central government since the Tiananmen massacre of 1989. The central government subsequently accepted the Democratic Party's revised proposal in the run-up to the LegCo vote, which allowed the five new functional constituency members of LegCo to be elected by popular vote. However, the Democratic Party failed to get any promises on the 2017 Chief Executive and 2020 Legco elections. The Democratic Party's move significantly divided the opinion within the pan-democracy camp but the bill was ultimately passed in June 2010 with the support of the Democratic Party. After the agreement with Beijing, 30 Young Turk Reformists (comprising 4% of the membership) left the party before the December Party leadership election, accusing their leaders of betraying the people and slowing the pace towards universal suffrage. LegCo member Andrew Cheng had also quit the party earlier at the LegCo voting in June.
The party's refusal of participating the by-election and the agreement with Beijing heavily damaged the solidarity of the pan-democracy camp. The "radical" League of Social Democrats accused the Democratic Party for "selling out" Hong Kong people. During the annual 1 July march in 2010, the Democratic Party leaders were verbally attacked by other democratic protestors, who chanted "Shame on you, Democratic Party, for selling out Hong Kong people."
In the Election Committee Subsector elections in December 2011, the pan-democracy camp was able to get more than 150 seats to secure the threshold of nominating a candidate in the 2012 Chief Executive election. Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho won over Frederick Fung of ADPL in the pan-democracy primary election and stood for the camp in the election. The election was dominated by the two candidates from the pro-Beijing camp, Henry Tang and Leung Chun-ying and marked by scandals, dirty tactics and smears from both sides. Albert Ho fell behind in the opinion poll throughout the campaign partly due to the impossibility of him being elected by the Beijing-controlled Election Committee. The pan-democracy camp called for casting blank votes on the election day. During the election 1,132 votes were cast, CY Leung received 689; Henry Tang received 285, and Albert Ho received 76.

### Umbrella movement and aftermath (2012–2019)

In the 2015 District Council election, the Democrats won total number of 43 seats with several second-tier figures, including vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei and chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting, scored victories, while others like former chairman Albert Ho and vice-chairman Andrew Wan lost.
For the 2016 Legislative Council election, the party proposed an unprecedented pre-election primary to hold public debates before selecting candidates for each constituency. 14 nominations were received on 31 December 2015, in which three incumbents, chairperson Emily Lau and veterans Albert Ho and Sin Chung-kai did not seek for re-election to hasten the party's rejuvenation. They chose to stand as second candidates behind young party colleagues, Lam Cheuk-ting, Andrew Wan and Hui Chi-fung respectively to boost the chances for them to get elected. Despite the decrease in their vote share, the Democrats gained seven seats, one more than the previous election, by retaking a seat in the New Territories West. Roy Kwong, a young progressive Democrat District Councillor also received most votes of nearly 500,000 in the District Council (Second) "super seat". By taking seven seats, the Democrats retook the status of flagship pro-democracy party.
In the December leadership election, legislator Wu Chi-wai was elected new chairman uncontestedly. The Democrats supported former Financial Secretary John Tsang, making the first time a pro-democracy party to support an establishment candidate, after the pro-democrats decided not to field their candidate to boost the chance of an alternative candidate against incumbent Leung Chun-ying. The Democrats opposed former Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam, the eventual winner of the election. However, the party has developed a warmer relationship with Carrie Lam government, evident in the attendance and donation of the Chief Executive to the party's 2018 anniversary dinner.
The Democrats suffered a historic loss of headcount on 12 December 2018 when 59 members, including five District Councillors from New Territories East, resigned en masse, after a row over the 2019 District Council election, accusing Legislative Councillor Lam Cheuk-ting of despicable character, his lack of political ethics and conflict of interest.
The relations between the party and Carrie Lam turned sour as the administration was embattled numerous controversies including the raising of the age threshold for the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and the dropping of Leung Chun-ying's UGL case. Lam was not invited to the party's 24th anniversary dinner in March 2019. The relations between Lam and the party completely fell out in May 2019 over the extradition law controversy in which the Democrats strongly opposed. Party chairman Wu Chi-wai even shouted at Lam "Why don't you die? You're a waste of life, bitch!" at a LegCo meeting after Lam dismissed the opposition views as "extreme" and "unnecessary fear" and called the claims that it was a deliberate decision by the colonial government to exclude the mainland from any rendition arrangements in the 1990s as "nonsense". On 29 May, Democrat Andrew Wan moved the first motion of no confidence against Lam since she took the office on the grounds that she "blatantly lied" about the extradition bill and misled the public and the international community. The motion was defeated by the pro-Beijing majority.

### Anti-extradition protest and security law (2019–2023)

The Democratic Party quickly warned about the possibility that the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill could be used by China to have political dissidents extradited, and was supportive to the protestors, subsequently became the largest party in the 2019 local elections. Democratic party member Lam Cheuk-ting was injured in the 2019 Yuen Long attack. In August 2020, he was arrested on charges of rioting during that attack, and again in December 2020 for allegedly disclosing the personal information of individuals connected to it.
The Democratic Party did not field a candidate for the 2021 legislative election, the first time since handover of Hong Kong in 1997, after a two-week application period to nominate party members ended without a candidate stepping forward. Beijing loyalists had warned the Party not to "boycott" the election. Party divisions were exposed as Fred Li, former Democratic MP, Edith Leung, vice-chairlady, and So Yat-hang, member of the Central Committee, supported non-establishment candidate without party's consent, of which the former two were expelled from the party.
The party did not run in the 2023 local elections after its members failed to obtain enough nominations required after an overhaul of election rules, while Fred Li was not re-appointed by the government as member of the quango Travel Industry Authority. This left the Democratic Party without any elected representatives nor public office positions starting from 2024, for the first time since its formation.

### Dissolution (2024–2025)

Democratic Party had been low profile and considered to have lost their influence in the city as the government remained hawkish to safeguarding national security law. During the short consultation of the domestic national security law, also known as Article 23, the Democratic Party argued the wording of the bill was overly vague and the low threshold to incriminate others, which could create more "chilling effect" and harming the international reputation of Hong Kong. Their suggestions, along with the allied parties, were not accepted and the bill was fast-tracked in the Legislative Council in March 2024 for passage. In the ensuing months, the party met the press on several polices only, which effectively turned itself to a "pressure group". In December, Lo was again re-elected party chair with an expanded central committee but leaving one of the vice-chairmanship vacant. The chair said the party would continue its work.
It was later reported that the a party member was approached by someone "with Beijing official background" in November or December, conveying the message that the Chinese government believed "the historic mission of the party is over". That person said Beijing would not allow the party, which no longer has any intrinsic value, to run in the December Legislative Council election. Multiple colleagues in the party received similar information from the "messenger" which was interpreted as an attempt to clear all remaining opposition voices. Fred Li said the "messenger" suggested the party cannot survive until the election month.
Media reported that there were internal discussions for months on the future of the group, and inclined to disband it with the possible legal and safety risks. The end of the party speeded up after the central committee was likely demanded in around February, possibly from Beijing side, to start dissolution process at the upcoming meeting or risk a ban from the authorities. The central committee, although with divisions, agreed to end the party after a meeting on 20 February 2025, just days after reports emerged over the possible closure. The central committee of the party setting up a task force to look into procedures before dissolving the party, which would require support from 75% of the attending members of the party congress. Lo Kin-hei declined to comment on whether they were pressurized, but stated that the party was not in financial difficulties and the decision was made with consideration of the political factors.
The dissolution came as a surprise amidst calm political atmosphere in the city, given that Democratic Party was one of the modest and patriotic party in the opposition camp. Pro-Beijing media and politicians waged attacks on the flagship party, saying the disbandment is self-inflicted and the only way ahead. Sing Tao Daily said the senior democrats did not apologise or take up responsibilities for the anti-extradition bill protests, which led to the decision by Beijing to bar the party from participating in elections.

## Organisation

The Democratic Party is governed by a Central Committee, originally 30-member large but reduced to 10 in 2022, including one chairmanship and two vice-chairmanships elected by the party congress. All public office holders, including the members of the Legislative Council and District Councils, are eligible to vote in the party congress. The electoral method changed since 2014, the eligibility of members electing a delegate who holds one vote in the congress from 30 members each delegate to only 5 members. Candidate for the chairmanship also needs a majority to claim victory. A 14-member Executive Committee including the secretary and treasurer posts is elected by the Central Committee members.

## Factions and Ideology

The Democratic Party is considered by different scholars a big tent, right-wing, centre or centre-left. It had around 400 members at the time of dissolution, down from 600 in 2002 and 700 in 2017.
* Mainstreamers – led by the "triumvirate", Yeung Sum, Cheung Man-kwong and Lee Wing-tat and consisting of members including Albert Ho, Sin Chung-kai and Tik Chi-yuen. In 1999, Lee asserted that the Democratic Party should strive to serve as representative of middle class interests, and take balance between parliamentary politics and street action. Yeung and Lee were the party chairmen from 2002 to 2004 and 2004 to 2006 respectively.
* Meeting Point – consisting of former members of the Meeting Point, including Lo Chi-kin, Andrew Fung and led by the former Meeting Point chairman Anthony Cheung. The Meeting Point faction prefers a more pro-middle class, pro-market and moderate agenda. It also stresses dialogue with Beijing and Hong Kong governments over struggle, and parliamentary politics over street action. Anthony Cheung quit the party in 2004 and was appointed to the Secretary for Transport and Housing by Leung Chun-ying in 2012; Andrew Fung quit the party in 2012 in an unpleasant manner and was appointed government's information coordinator in 2013.
* Young Turks – consisting of the relatively radical, left-wing and pro-grassroots activists and local-level party members including Steve Chan Kwok-leung, Tsang Kin-shing, Andrew Cheng, Albert Chan and Eric Wong Chung-ki. Led by Andrew To, the Young Turks believed that the party should take struggle over dialogue and mass movements over parliamentary politics as the party's strategy. They also suggested adopting more grassroots platform such as minimum wage. The Young Turks were more like a "factional clique" than an organised faction as they were a group of young politicians with poor discipline and only had some vague common ideas, without a clear leader, coherent ideologies or positions. The Young Turks attempted to challenge the party leadership by nominating Lau Chin-shek to run for vice-chairman against Anthony Cheung in the 1998 party leadership election. Lau was expelled from the party in 2000 and Andrew To, Tsang Kin-shing and Albert Chan left the party and subsequently formed the left-wing League of Social Democrats in 2006.

## Electoral performance
### Chief Executive elections

| Election | Candidate | No. of votes | % of votes |
| 2005 | Lee Wing-tat | Not nominated | Not nominated |
| 2012 | Albert Ho | 76 | 7.24 |

### Legislative Council elections

| Election | Number of popular votes | % of popular votes | GC seats | FC seats | EC seats | Total seats | +/− | Position |
| 1995 | 385,428 | 41.87 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 19 / 60 | 4 | 1st |
| 1998 | 634,635 | 42.87 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 13 / 60 | – | 1st |
| 2000 | 417,873 | 31.66 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 / 60 | 0 | 1st |
| 2004 | 445,988 | 25.19 | 7 | 2 | | 9 / 60 | 2 | 3rd |
| 2008 | 312,692 | 20.63 | 7 | 1 | | 8 / 60 | 1 | 2nd |
| 2012 | 247,220 | 13.65 | 4 | 2 | | 6 / 70 | 2 | 2nd |
| 2016 | 199,876 | 9.22 | 5 | 2 | | 7 / 70 | 1 | 2nd |
| 2021 | Did not contest | Did not contest | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 / 90 | 0 | N/A |

### Municipal elections

| Election | Number of popular votes | % of popular votes | UrbCo seats | RegCo seats | Total elected seats |
| 1995 | 205,823 | 36.91 | 12 / 32 | 11 / 27 | 23 / 59 |

### District Council elections

| Election | Number of popular votes | % of popular votes | Total elected seats | +/− |
| 1994 | 157,929 | 23.01 | 75 / 346 | 15 |
| 1999 | 201,461 | 24.85 | 86 / 390 | 13 |
| 2003 | 223,675 | 21.27 | 95 / 400 | 17 |
| 2007 | 175,054 | 15.38 | 59 / 405 | 21 |
| 2011 | 205,716 | 17.42 | 47 / 412 | 3 |
| 2015 | 196,068 | 13.56 | 43 / 431 | 1 |
| 2019 | 362,275 | 12.36 | 91 / 452 | 54 |
| 2023 | Did not contest | Did not contest | 0 / 470 | 7 |

## Leadership
### Chairpersons

| № | Chairperson (Birth–Death) | Constituency | Took office | Left office | Duration | Leadership election |
| 1 | Martin Lee (born 1938) | Hong Kong Island East (1991–1997) Hong Kong Island (1998–2008) | 2 October 1994 | 1 December 2002 | 8 years and 61 days | 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 |
| 2 | Yeung Sum (born 1947) | Hong Kong Island | 1 December 2002 | 17 December 2004 | 2 years and 17 days | 2002 |
| 3 | Lee Wing-tat (born 1955) | New Territories West | 17 December 2004 | 17 December 2006 | 2 years and 1 day | 2004 |
| 4 | Albert Ho (born 1951) | New Territories West | 17 December 2006 | 10 September 2012 | 5 years and 269 days | 2006, 2008, 2010 |
| 5 | Emily Lau (born 1952) | New Territories East | 10 September 2012 | 4 December 2016 | 4 years and 86 days | 2012, 2014 |
| 6 | Wu Chi-wai (born 1962) | Kowloon East | 4 December 2016 | 6 December 2020 | 4 years and 3 days | 2016, 2018 |
| 7 | Lo Kin-hei (born 1984) | Lei Tung II (District Council, 2011–2021) | 6 December 2020 | Incumbent | 4 years and 103 days | 2020, 2022, 2024 |
* ↑ As Chairman of the United Democrats from 23 April 1990 to 2 October 1994.
* ↑ Resigned, Emily Lau served as acting chair between 10 September and 16 December 2012.

### Vice-Chairpersons

| Vice-Chairperson | Vice-Chairperson | Vice-Chairperson | Vice-Chairperson | Chairperson |
| Yeung Sum | 1994–2000 | Anthony Cheung | 1994–98 | Martin Lee |
| Yeung Sum | 1994–2000 | Lau Chin-shek | 1998 | Martin Lee |
| Yeung Sum | 1994–2000 | Albert Ho | 1999–2000 | Martin Lee |
| Law Chi-kwong | 2000–02 | Lee Wing-tat | 2000–04 | Martin Lee |
| Albert Ho | 2002–06 | Lee Wing-tat | 2000–04 | Yeung Sum |
| Albert Ho | 2002–06 | Chan King-ming | 2004–06 | Lee Wing-tat |
| Sin Chung-kai | 2006–12 | Tik Chi-yuen | 2006–08 | Albert Ho |
| Sin Chung-kai | 2006–12 | Emily Lau | 2008–12 | Albert Ho |
| Lo Kin-hei | 2012–20 | Richard Tsoi | 2012–14 | Emily Lau |
| Lo Kin-hei | 2012–20 | Andrew Wan | 2014–16 | Emily Lau |
| Lo Kin-hei | 2012–20 | Li Wing-shing | 2016–18 | Wu Chi-wai |
| Lo Kin-hei | 2012–20 | Andrew Wan | 2018–20 | Wu Chi-wai |
| Edith Leung | 2020–22 | Lam Cheuk-ting | 2020–21 | Lo Kin-hei |
| Edith Leung | 2020–22 | Lee Wing-tat | 2021–22 | Lo Kin-hei |
| Vacant | Vacant | Vacant | Vacant | | Lo Kin-hei |
| Mok Kin-shing | 2022–25 | Bonnie Ng | 2022–24 | Lo Kin-hei |
| Lo Kin-hei ||

### Secretaries

* Law Chi-kwong, 1994–1998
* Cheung Yin-tung, 1998–2006
* Peggy Ha Ving-vung, 2006–08
* Cheung Yin-tung, 2008–14, 2016–20
* Li Wing-shing, 2014–16
* Shum Wan-wa, 2020–22
* Leung Wing-kuen, 2022–25

### Treasurers

* Andrew Fung Wai-kwong, 1994–2000
* Wong Bing-kuen, 2000–02
* Tsui Hon-kwong, 2002–06
* Cheung Yin-tung, 2006–08
* Tsui Hon-kwong, 2008–12
* Stanley Ng, 2012–14
* Ramon Yuen, 2014–18
* Sin Chung-kai, 2018–21
* Kelvin Sin Cheuk-nam, 2022–24

### Vice-secretaries

* Mark Li Kin-yin, 2014–2016