A proposal in the Chief Executive Election Bill to strip one vote from two Election Committee members who are entitled to two violates the Basic Law, a legislator said yesterday.
Under the bill, the 800-member Election Committee will choose the next chief executive on March 28 next year.
There are six Election Committee members entitled to two votes.
Audrey Eu Yuet-mee and Lau Ping-cheung have one vote as legislators and one as subsector representatives of the legal and surveying professions respectively.
Ng Ching-fai, Yeung Yiu-chung, Philip Wong Yu-hong and Legco president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai have one vote as legislators and one as local National People's Congress deputies.
The Government has proposed that an Election Committee member will be deemed to have resigned his or her seat in the subsector on becoming an ex-officio voter. By-elections will be held to fill the seats.
Speaking at a Legco meeting on the bill, Mr Lau said the proposal would deprive him of his voting rights. 'The Basic Law says the committee's term of office is five years. But you now want to deprive me of the right to vote as a representative of my sector.'