The city’s largest party also achieved landslide victories on several fronts, such as the win for DAB candidate Yiu Ming in Fanling’s Wu Tip Shan constituency, where he became the top grossing winner with more than two-thirds of the local vote, or 20,053 ballots.

The Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) came in as runner-up in the citywide contest after securing 17.6 per cent of the vote and winning 18 seats, with only seven of its candidates losing.

Among the 10 candidates fielded by the Business and Professionals Alliance, four bagged seats on the city’s district councils.

But the election saw the New People’s Party struggling to win the popular vote, only accounting for 8.5 per cent of ballots cast and seeing just five of its 17 contenders win seats on the municipal bodies.

Party chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said she was “very pleased” with the result, but noted the “substantially enlarged” constituencies had posed a challenge to campaign efforts.

Under the previous district council system, 452 of the 479 seats were directly elected and the remainder were filled by rural leaders, with the opposition and pro-establishment camps duking it out for each spot.

The government earlier this year overhauled the municipal bodies in a bid to “depoliticise” the system and ensure it aligned with Beijing’s “patriots-only” policy direction.

The revamp also saw the 452 constituencies merged into 88 zones, with each represented by two district councillors and voters able to pick one candidate on their ballot forms.

A visual guide to Hong Kong’s 2023 district council election

Political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing, who co-authored a book on the district councils, said the outcome was predictable as both the enlarged constituencies and “one vote, two seats” system favoured larger parties by design.

“As the loyalist camp pushed hard for mobilisation, it was inevitable that the people who could be mobilised were mainly DAB supporters,” he said. “Independent candidates who performed well were exceptions, such as Christine Fong Kwok-shan, who has a long record of community work.”

Fong, a long-time district councillor who had previously made several failed attempts to run for Legislative Council, stood out among small party hopefuls and independents on Sunday when she took 59 per cent of the vote in the Tseung Kwan O constituency.

But two of Fong’s fellow candidates from non-partisan political group Professional Power failed to win seats in two neighbouring constituencies.

Hong Kong’s revamped district council poll reflects political tale of two cities

Advocacy group the Federation of Public Housing Estates proved to be another exception on election day when its two candidates, Pang Chi-sang and Fung Cheuk-sum, respectively won seats in the Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan constituencies.

Group chairman Man Yu-ming attributed the duo’s success to their long-term presence in the neighbourhoods.

Pang successfully beat out his opposite number in the DAB, while Fung as a decade-long resident and advocate in Tsuen Wan enjoyed an advantage over the FTU – the city’s second-largest party.

“One of the reasons that Fung could stand out was his long-time presence in the area, while his rival parachuted in to run in the district and [lost] despite having the party label,” Man said.

New Prospect for Hong Kong, a relative newcomer in local politics, saw only one candidate among the five fielded secure a seat.

Gary Zhang Xinyu, the party’s sole lawmaker, said its contenders had performed well and managed to win 3,051 to 5,662 ballots each.

“We are able to earn quite some votes by riding on our ideas, and by working hard in the neighbourhood for a period of time, it’s possible for us to break the traditional pattern,” he said.

Polytechnic University political scientist Chan Wai-keung, who served as a district councillor for eight years before 2015, said voters’ had turned to familiar brands amid an opposition-free election reliant on pro-establishment supporters turning up.

“Most of the candidates fielded by the establishment this time are unknowns,” he said. “The people who came out to vote are all fans of the establishment, but they had no idea who these people were. So they could only decide based on the party flag.”

As it happened: Hong Kong district council poll ends after 1½-hour extension

Chan also pointed to the failure of celebrity candidates with no track record of community service.

These included YouTuber Mok Ka-kit, who became famous during the 2019 social unrest as an avid police supporter but lost by a margin of less than 200 votes in the Wong Tai Sin East constituency.

Meanwhile, TV host Adrianna Sung Chih-ling made a buzz in the media with her election bid in the Wan Chai, yet became the only unsuccessful Liberal Party contender out of the four fielded after losing by a margin of more than 3,000 votes.

Chan noted there were some cases of marginal and lesser-known candidates winning in this year’s poll, but the prospects of independents remained generally dim under the revamped system.

“Independents fighting alone are fighting uphill battles,” he said. “Unless you manage to get support from many grass-roots organisations, otherwise your chances are slim.”

Additional reporting by Connor Mycroft and Peter Guo