The reality of district council politics hit home when he found himself in a 35-member body where pro-Beijing councillors outnumbered pan-democrats by 25 to 10.

“We pan-democrats have been fully blocked in the council, with none of our motions ever passed,” he said. “We’ve given up raising motions as we know our rivals will change the wording before getting them passed.”

All 18 district councils in Hong Kong are dominated by the pro-establishment camp. Their overwhelming numbers also mean the pro-establishment group takes up the entire block of 117 seats set aside for councillors in the 1,200-member special committee that elects the chief executive.

The Eastern council in which Chui serves is considered a “deep red” zone — a pro-establishment stronghold.

He was well aware before the election that district councils were mainly consultative bodies that could do little to change government policies. But the reality still proved painful.

“Officials who do not even bother to ‘give face’ to legislators, for sure don’t care about us district councillors,” he said, describing how bureaucrats routinely ignore councillors’ letters about district problems and even suggestions for improvements.

“The entire society, especially the grass-roots sector, is bleeding. What I am doing is to cover the wounds with plaster which cannot stop the bleeding. The situation will not improve as long as policies remain unchanged,” he said.

Chui represents Yue Wan public housing estate, with its share of underprivileged residents, and some cases he has dealt with left him feeling helpless.

A woman with a mental illness approached him, but declined medical help. When he tried reaching out to her daughter, she snubbed him. The best he could do was to arrange for a counsellor to try contacting the woman over the phone.

“What else can I do? It’s pathetic,” he lamented, saying the case showed that Hong Kong’s medical and care policies need to be fixed to help people like her.

Other areas of his work have given him satisfaction, however, especially helping the elderly and people in need.

He persuaded restaurants and bakeries in his area to distribute lunchboxes and bread to elderly people in need. He has also arranged free group tuition and orchestra performances for children from low-income families.

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“I never mind the label ‘se zaai beng zung’,” Chui said, using the Cantonese phrase which literally means “snake feasts, vegetarian feasts, mooncakes and rice dumplings”, that is often used to mock pro-establishment councillors who hand out sweeteners to residents.

“There is a perception that pro-establishment candidates do a better job in community work, but I want to prove that a pan-democrat can do a great job as well,” he said.

Chui will be defending his seat in the district council elections on November 24 in a four-way fight. Also running are Lau Kin, a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Federation of Trade Unions, and independents Tsai Tsui-wan and Woo Kin-nam.

Another novice politician who experienced her baptism of fire is Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, 32, who found herself isolated as the sole pan-democrat in the 13-member Wan Chai District Council.

A fine arts graduate, she switched from being a part-time postsecondary institute lecturer to being a full-time district councillor after her unexpected victory — by just 250 votes — in the 2015 elections which she contested as an independent too.

“It is a tough job,” she said, explaining she went from being in charge in the classroom to finding herself on her own, with no allies, in the council.

Despite the frustrations along the way, she remained upbeat about her work.

An animal-lover advocating diversity and green issues, she said in her election manifesto that she wanted to turn an existing garden in her Tai Hang area of Wan Chai into a pet garden where people could walk their dogs and pets.

Her team conducted detailed surveys and collected views the residents before she presented her proposal to the council, but the councillor in the neighbouring constituency objected, saying it would affect others passing the park on their way home.

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Her team had to do more work. “We set up a camera to monitor the flow of people for seven days. It proved that only a small number used the stairs next to the garden,” Yeung said.

The council remained unmoved, but agreed to study the idea further in a working group.

“In this climate, I call it a success as long as an idea is not dead,” said Yeung, who intends to follow up on the proposal.

Like Chui, she has derived satisfaction from activities she introduced in her area.

She organised a “straw-free day” to discourage the use of plastic straws, and 70 eateries joined the effort. Her office produced a sticker, with Yeung’s trademark cartoon which she designed herself, for “straw-free restaurants” supporting environmentally-friendly efforts.

Rather than organise the usual low-priced tours to take residents across Hong Kong, Yeung held festivals in Tai Hang featuring more than 20 environmental and animal groups which set up booths in a garden.

“It was a very enjoyable experience,” she said. “It fulfilled my hope of building a community making use of public spaces, and connecting residents who seldom have the chance to interact with these small NGOs.”

Yeung feels it is important to keep council proceedings transparent, and that is why her team uses mobile phones to broadcast its meetings.

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Asked what she would change if she found herself in the majority at the council after the elections, Yeung said: “I hope we can go to Victoria Park for council meetings, with the floor open for public engagement.

She looks forward to that day when the tables are turned, even though Wan Chai is considered even more of a pro-establishment stronghold than Chui’s Eastern district.

Yeung has founded a group called “Kick-start Wan Chai”, with nine new faces running in the November district elections. Their slogan is: “Reclaim Council. Democracy Now!”

She is facing a challenge at the polls from lecturer Marcus Liu Tin-Shing, who is in his 30s and a former vice-chairman of the moderate political party Third Side.

Chui is also keeping his fingers crossed that his district council’s composition will change next month. He has been working closely with 11 pan-democrat candidates, including sharing his experiences with nine new faces in the group with no party affiliation.

Some 44.5 per cent and 13.6 per cent of 751 respondents said they were from the pro-democracy and localist camps respectively, up from 27.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent in March.

Only six per cent of respondents said they leaned towards the pro-establishment bloc, a significant drop from March’s 13 per cent.

If the tide changes next month in favour of the pan-democrats, it will not be the first time.

In the 2004 district council elections, pan-democrats formed the majority in a few district councils after riding a wave of anti-government sentiment following massive protests in 2003 against the proposal to introduce national security laws.

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Political scholar Ivan Choy Chi-keung, of Chinese University, said the councils dominated by pan-democratic members in 2004 did not differ much to their predecessors, as district councils were much constrained by having no power to scrutinise projects and government funding.

What will be more significant is if pan-democrat candidates sweep next month’s elections in sufficient numbers to take the main prize — the 117 seats in the election committee which picks the next chief executive.

“A landslide victory will send an international message that the ongoing protests have gained public support,” Choy said.

“It will also be important to keep the protest movement going, and encourage young people not affiliated with parties to enter politics if they are interested.”