In the 2000 Legislative Council election, Cyd Ho switched to Hong Kong Island. Her vacancy was taken up by Democrat Wong Sing-chi who led a separate ticket targeting North District and Tai Po District, while Andrew Cheng targeted Sha Tin District and Sai Kung District. Two extra seats were added to New Territories East in 2004 election, in which the pro-democrats formed a star-dubbed "7.1 United Front" ticket which aimed at winning five seats riding on the pro-democracy wave from the 2003 mass demonstration. However only the first three candidates, Andrew Cheng, Emily Lau and Ronny Tong were elected, while the fourth candidate Wong Sing-chi was ousted. The DAB ticket also won two seats with Li Kwok-ying of the rural background also won a new seat. James Tien of the Liberal Party who was at the peak of his popularity from his opposition to the Basic Law Article 23 legislation contested in the constituency for the first time, while socialist activist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung won the last seat, unexpectedly ousting Andrew Wong.
James Tien lost his re-election in the 2008 Legislative Council election as the Liberal Party's popularity declined, and was replaced by Wong Sing-chi. Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) rose to the top of the poll among the pro-democrats and Emily Lau dropped to the last. Lau decided to merge the Frontier into the Democratic Party after the party and became its vice chairwoman. In 2010 Leung Kwok-hung resigned from his office to trigger a by-election as part of the de facto "Five Constituencies Referendum" to pressure the government on the 2012 constitutional reform package. Leung was re-elected with a low turnout due to the government and pro-Beijing boycott, while Emily Lau's Democratic Party brokered a compromise with the Beijing authorities over the reform proposal, which increased the seats of the Legislative Council from 30 to 35, making the number of the seats in New Territories East from seven to nine.[4][5]
In the 2012 Legislative Council election, the Democrats put forward an offensive strategy by fielding three tickets hoping to retain their current three seats. However with the radical democrats' ferocious attacks on their compromised position on the electoral reform, the Democrats retained only Emily Lau's seat while People Power's Raymond Chan and Neo Democrats' Gary Fan who quit the Democratic Party each won a seat. The DAB retained their two seats by splitting their ticket into two, each led by Chan Hak-kan and Elizabeth Quat. Fernando Cheung of the Labour Party and James Tien of the Liberal Party also returned to the Legislative Council through New Territories East.
Baggio Leung was soon disqualified from the office due to his oath-taking controversy, followed by Leung Kwok-hung who was also disqualified for his oath-taking manner. A by-election was held in March 2018, where Gary Fan made a comeback by defeating Tang Ka-piu of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). However, Fan was later unseated by the court in December 2019, as the court viewed pro-independence candidate Ventus Lau's disqualification in the by-election was unlawful.[7]
Returned members
Below are all the members returned for the New Territories East constituency since its creation. The number of seats increased from five to nine between 1998 and 2016.
Elizabeth Quat Kenny Chong Yuen-tung, Tung Kin-lei, Chan Pok-chi, Alvin Chiu Man-leong, Philip Li Ka-leung, Wan Kai-ming, Ada Lo Tai-suen, Alf Wong Chi-yung