How the New Territories East by-election could help re-write the Legco rule book
Pro-establishment lawmakers have long wanted to change the procedures to curb pan-democrats’ filibustering
The candidate who wins the by-election on February 28 may only have five months in the legislature but the result’s impact could ricochet far beyond the current legislative year.
The most significant consequence concerns potential changes to the Legislative Council’s rules of procedure to restrict filibustering.
The pro-democracy camp has employed Legco rules to drag out debates on controversial bills by submitting thousands of amendments, requesting numerous quorum counts and making multiple speeches during debates, much to the pro-establishment camp’s chagrin.
While the latter has long sought to change the rule book to curb such stalling tactics, making the change hasn’t been possible.
That’s because any changes would require support from geographical and functional constituencies.
Although the functional constituency is dominated by pro-establishment lawmakers, the pan-democrats held a majority in the geographical constituency prior to Civic Party Ronny Tong Ka-wah’s resignation from the seat that’s now up for grabs.
READ MORE: Hong Kong Legco president squashes plan to change quorum rules to beat filibusters
But this balance of power could tip the other way on Sunday once the votes are counted.
As part of his campaign, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB)’s Holden Chow Ho-ding has openly advocated changing in the rules of procedure to put an end to filibustering.
And if he wins the New Territories East race, the pro-establishment camp would gain a majority in the geographical constituency – with 18 seats against 17 – potentially paving the way for this game changer.
Pan-democratic lawmakers have been sounding the alarm bell over this scenario.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun said if Chow wins, the government could put changing the rules at the top of the Legco agenda. He said: “Apart from the budget, the administration could leave all the other bills for the next legislative year in order to make time for changing the rules of procedure.”
READ MORE: Filibustering creates logjam for Hong Kong legislation
In an article, barrister and former legal sector lawmaker Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee warned that “if the government has enough votes in Legco, it would not only try to stamp out filibustering by changing the rules of procedure but it would also push through many evil laws”.
But lawmakers in the pro-establishment camp have dismissed such concerns.
Wong Kwok-kin, of the Federation of Trade Unions, criticised the threat as nothing more than a scare strategy adopted by the pan-democrats.
“Of course it is unfeasible to amend the rules of procedures in such a short period of time,” he said. “They just wanted to create a crisis so they could consolidate their supporters.”
As president Jasper Tsang Tok-sing is not supposed to cast any vote, Wong argued the pro-Beijing camp would not have the upper hand even if Chow grabbed the seat – unless Tsang resigned.
Wong doubted if Tsang would find that necessary, adding there were still a number of important bills pending in Legco.
