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.