A 33-hour marathon filibuster came to an abrupt end yesterday after Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing invoked for the first time powers in the rules of procedure to halt debate on a controversial bill to restrict Legco by-elections.
The move drew a legal challenge from League of Social Democrats legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung. He wants the High Court to rule that Tsang went beyond his powers in ending the debate or to issue a temporary injunction freezing Tsang's decision.
The filibuster was an attempt by radical democrats to block the passage of the bill, which would ban lawmakers who resign midterm from standing in a by-election within six months. People Power legislators Albert Chan Wai-yip and Wong Yuk-man tabled 1,300 amendments to the proposal. Pro-government lawmakers tried to stop the filibuster.
Debate was suspended twice in the last two weeks because too few lawmakers were in the chamber. It resumed at 2.30pm on Wednesday after Tsang approved an overnight sitting. As the debate entered its 33rd hour at 4.30am yesterday, pro-government lawmaker Philip Wong Yu-hong asked for an end to scrutiny of the amendments, prompting nearly two hours of closed-door discussion among legislators.
Tsang then announced he would invoke Article 92 of Legco's rules of procedure - which empower the council president to decide on matters not bound by existing rules - to stop the debate at 12pm and vote on the amendments in the afternoon.
Pan-democrats criticised him fiercely, saying it could set an 'extremely bad precedent' by allowing the Legco president's power to expand 'boundlessly', so that in future he could halt debate at will on other controversial bills, such as legislation on the national security law.
Tsang said he had exercised a power he was entitled to use. He said his decision was not due to any political pressure from the government, but was intended to maintain normal operation of the legislature. He also said he had discussed with the Legco secretariat exercising the power.