Speeded-up debate on surveillance legislation avoids overnight session for lawmakers
Lawmakers speeded up their marathon deliberation on the covert surveillance bill yesterday, getting through most of the sticky issues and averting the threat of an all-night sitting.
Of the remaining issues, the fight for a 'sunset clause' limiting the life of the law - to be discussed at the very end of the debate and which is almost certain to be voted down - is the one the Democrats and their allies are most desperate to win.
In view of the progress, Legco president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai decided against holding an overnight session last night, to the relief of lawmakers and officials alike. Some legislators predicted their scrutiny would be completed by tonight.
Democrat Cheung Man-kwong denied that Mrs Fan's threat of an overnight meeting had led the bill's opponents to cut short their speeches.
'We have talked less because the major controversies concerned the definitions in the bill, which took so much time in the first day of debate. Right now, it has gone to the more technical terms and of course it would speed up until another controversial issue such as the sunset clause [comes up].'