It has become a Legislative Council tradition. For the fourth time since Donald Tsang Yam-kuen took office as chief executive, lawmakers refused to thank him for his policy address.
Some legislators have even started questioning the necessity of tabling a motion of thanks for the annual policy blueprint, suggesting it would be enough for the legislature to acknowledge it.
Thirty-six votes backed the motion, from pro-government lawmakers and pan-democrat Joseph Lee Kok-long, outnumbering the 21 opposition votes cast by the pan-democrats. However, it was still defeated because under Legco's split vote-counting system, the motion had to secure a simple majority in both the functional and geographical constituencies to pass.
It was Tsang's sixth policy address. Only two motions of thanks, in 2007 and 2008, have been passed since he assumed office in 2005.
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong chairman Tam Yiu-chung suggested that instead of tabling a motion of thanks - a tradition inherited from the colonial era - in future Legco could just have a motion to acknowledge it had received the blueprint. 'Some people don't understand that voting for the motion of thanks does not mean legislators accept everything in the policy address. It is only a courtesy practice,' he said.
All five amendments tabled by the pan-democrats, calling for legislation to eradicate functional constituency seats on Legco and appointed seats on the District Council, and further measures to alleviate poverty, were defeated.
During the three-day debate on the motion, which took more than 30 hours, lawmakers criticised the government for refusing to resume building Home Ownership Scheme flats, and expressed concern over surging property prices and the wide wealth gap in the city.