The future government has modified controversial amendments to laws on freedom of assembly and association, but stuck to its guns on the need to safeguard national security in law after July 1.
The bills are scheduled to be tabled in the provisional legislature tomorrow and feature a relaxation of curbs on protests and a narrower ban on foreign political funding.
Police will be given leeway to allow demonstrations at short notice 'in exceptional circumstances', removing the minimum 48-hour notification period that was proposed in the original consultation paper published last month.
Among the 11 amendments to the original proposals are changes to allow political parties to receive donations from 'aliens'.
The ban on foreign donations will be confined to local groups soliciting or receiving funds from foreign political organisations.
But despite public concerns, Tung Chee-hwa and his cabinet have insisted on a legal definition of national security as grounds for rejecting applications for demonstrations and the deregistering of societies.
