Settlements in the area, except the Islands District, have been connected by the
Castle Peak Road since its completion in the 1920s, which also links
Kowloon and facilitates trading. In 1985, "
West New Territories" and "
South New Territories" electoral-college constituencies were created. West New Territories consisted of
Yuen Long District and
Tuen Mun District, while South New Territories consisted of
Tsuen Wan District,
Islands District and
Sai Kung District. The electoral colleges lasted for two terms until they were replaced by the
geographical constituencies in 1991 when the
first direct election to the Legislative Council were introduced. In the 1991 election, the directly elected "
New Territories West" and "
New Territories South" constituencies were created, each returning two members to the Legislative Council using the
two-seat constituency two vote system. New Territories West continued to consist of Yuen Long and Tuen Mun Districts, while New Territories South consisted of Tsuen Wan, Islands and
Kwai Tsing Districts. The
pro-democracy coalition of the
United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK) and
Meeting Point won three of the four seats, with one of the seats in New Territories West taken by
Tai Chin-wah with a strong rural background. Tai was soon founded guilty of fraud and the
vacancy was taken up by
Zachary Wong of the Meeting Point. Another
by-election was held in New Territories West after
Ng Ming-yum of the Meeting Point died of cancer, of which
Tang Siu-tong who had the rural support was elected. The
electoral system was overhauled after one term, replaced by the
single-constituency single-vote system in the
1995 Legislative Council election with five new constituencies, namely "
New Territories North-west", "
New Territories West", "
New Territories Central", "
New Territories South-west" and "
New Territories South". All five seats were taken by the
Democratic Party, merger of the United Democrats and Meeting Point. Following the
handover in 1997, the "
New Territories West" constituency replaced the colonial constituencies. It remained in place until 2021 under the change of electoral system, "
New Territories North", "
New Territories North West", and "
New Territories South West" were installed as the new constituencies. The Islands District was redistributed to
Hong Kong Island West constituency for the first time. == Evolution ==