Many of you might know that Tracey Duggan ran for Resident Village Representative of Pak Kok Old Village yesterday, the first non-Chinese to do so on Lamma in more than a decade, I think.

The Village Rep elections for all of North Lamma, that's what all the commotion at the City Hall (Rural Committee Building) and the heavy police presence in Yung Shue Wan was all about yesterday from noon to 7pm.

Tracey just informed the Lamma-zine that she lost by 15 against 7 votes, despite her best efforts at low-key campaigning. More than half of all these 22 voters showed up in the very first hour of the 7 hours of voting, all the way from Pak Kok, doing their civic duty so punctually, an impressive turnout far beyond other villages....

Tracey's actually quite glad that she didn't win, with hindsight, facing some pretty stiff opposition and adversity. She was sleeping well last night, she said, and is signing her emails these days as "Tracey the Un-Resident Rep" (which will become her Official Lamma-zine Nickname in the future.

My congratulations to her opponent, Chan Kwok Kin, winning in a quasi-democratic vote, who's keeping his honourary, unpaid job of representing Pak Kok Old Village to the govt. on all local matters as a spokesperson and mediating in local affairs.<HR>
So who's won for the biggest village, Yung Shue Wan?

SIX candidates for Resident Rep and quite a high-profile campaign with big banners and canvassing potential voters. Interestingly, half of the candidates are surnamed Fong and half are "Merchants".

Unlike at the last village rep election 4 years ago, there were ONLY FOUR Village Rep positions in all 12 villages contested in North Lamma. In South Lamma, 2 positions in each of the 8 villages, only a single position was contested at all (Indigenous Village Rep of Mo Tat Wan).
All the other positions were won by default with just a single candidate standing, no vote necessary, some didn't even have anybody standing, especially in South Lamma.

According to my last Village Rep Lamma-zine story 4 years ago - Pink Stickers, Orange Jackets, and a Red Carpet - about half the villages were contested last time and a vote necessary?

Even the Resident Rep for the biggest village, Yung Shue Wan, won uncontested this time, having 3 contenders last time. Who won?
Lamma-zine regular Lammadonna, Ms Yu Lai Fan, District Councilor AND former/future Resident Village Rep of YSW! So she'll remain the key person to contact for any questions, grievances and problems in YSW for all non-indigenous residents.

Two Indigenous Reps for YSW Village: Ng, Wai Pong & Sham, Chung Hei. Due to its size there are two Indigenous Reps.

What's changed so much in recent local politics in the last 4 years???

Here are the detailed results of the voting for North Lamma:
Indigenous Reps and Resident Reps.

Voter turnout was an impressive 60%, 304 indigenous Registered Electors, 140 resident ones.

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LG - good job on reporting on this and helping to lift some of the mystery surrounding these super low-key "representatives". I am sure the majority of VRs are worth every penny they are paid (ie zero) From your link to the results (copied below), I was amazed to see that a total of 98 votes were cast for Lo Tik Wan; last few times I was over there it seemed hardly anyone resided there. Most buildings are empty and/or derelict. To get 98 souls to cast votes I'd have thought they'd need to raise some of the old clan from the dead, and most the living ones are so old they'd have to have been air-lifted over! Or maybe their off-springs just popped over from Mid-levels, Vancouver or London.

Over in YSW, sympathies might go to candidate No3, Fong, Hoi Shan Thomas, who got no votes at all. I guess you aren't allowed to vote for yourself then. Argument with the wife too perhaps? Or maybe he just was making a subtle statement about the value of it all, which would certainly earn him my vote, or non-vote I should say.

http://www.had.gov.hk/vre/eng/images/20 ... Eng%29.pdf