Hong Kong lawmaker urges united effort to change rules on delaying tactics in legislature, saying public opinion in favour
Junius Ho says pro-establishment camp has a seven-month ‘golden time’ to act before by-elections to replace six opposition pan-democrats
Outspoken Hong Kong lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu has urged colleagues in the pro-establishment camp to seize their new-found advantage in the legislature to push through changes to meeting rules to beat the pan-democrats’ delaying tactics.
Ho, a member of the Legislative Council committee on rules of procedure, said the coming seven months should be the “golden time” to act, ahead of by-elections to replace six opposition lawmakers who were disqualified for improper oath-taking.
Plans to tackle filibustering on the table after chaos of Hong Kong legislature’s education funding debate
“I hope we, the pro-establishment members, can join forces to come up with something. Otherwise, I think I would do it on my own to propose amending the rules of procedure,” said Ho, referring to media reports that Chan Kin-por, who chairs the Finance Committee, was considering pushing for changes in the meeting rules of the committee to restrict pan-democrats.
Ho said it was the perfect time to act because the pan-democrats had “gone overboard” and the public was becoming more supportive of pro-establishment members.
“The pendulum is starting to swing back in the pro-establishment camp’s favour,” he said.
Pan-democratic legislators dragged out a Finance Committee debate for more than seven hours during a meeting last month to vote on a government request for an extra HK$3.6 billion to spend on education.